Ep. 426: President Trump's Shock and Awe Campaign and the American People’s Mental and Emotional Health

There are two guests on this week’s episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show.

Dr. Justin Frank is a former professor of psychiatry at George Washington University. He is the author of several books including Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President.

Dr. Frank reflects on how the American people and their collective sense of normal, safety, and security has been dramatically disrupted by Trump’s return to power and his  “shock and awe” campaign against American democracy and society. Dr. Frank counsels that feelings of dread, fear, and anxiety are totally normal responses to such a threat – but the question then becomes what to do with those feelings.

Dr. Frank also explains the psychological dynamics at work in why so many Americans were in denial, immature, and refused to believe the many warnings, over almost a decade, that Trump’s return to power would be a disaster for the country and the world.

Dr. Lance Dodes is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a training and supervising analyst emeritus at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute.

Dr. Dodes explains why and how so many Americans and others in this time of crisis are increasing their unhealthy use of alcohol, drugs, and engaging in other addictive behavior as a coping mechanism. He also explains the important differences between compulsion and bad habits and their importance for treating alcoholism and other diseases.

Dr. Frank and Dr. Dodes both share their advice for enduring, navigating, and how Americans of conscience and honor can try to stay healthy and relatively balanced and ready for the long struggle during this time of extreme stress, anxiety, fear, vulnerability, general duress and exhaustion.

Chauncey DeVega continues to navigate the long Trumpocene and Trump’s first month back in power, what are weeks that feel like years and decades. The Dear Leader has now declared himself a de facto king, emperor, Napoleon…. or worse.

And as Chauncey has warned for years, Trump is now literally whitewashing and creating a thoughtcrime regime against teaching the real history of American society and the color line with his very real and very serious Orwellian threats against America’s colleges, universities, and public schools. 

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