Who the heck is (Dr.) Bandy X. Lee?

TUESDAY, MAY 16, 2023

It's time to revisit this topic: Who the heck is (Dr.) Bandy X. Lee? 

It's time to revisit this topic. The leading authority on her life starts us off with this impressive thumbnail:

Bandy Xenobia Lee is an American psychiatrist whose scholarly work includes the writing of a comprehensive textbook on violence. She is a specialist in public health approaches to violence prevention who consulted with the World Health Organization and initiated reforms at New York's Rikers Island Correctional Facility. She helped draft the United Nations chapter on "Violence Against Children," leads a project group for the World Health Organization's Violence Prevention Alliance, and has contributed to prison reform in the United States and around the world. She taught at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School from 2003 through 2020.

[...] 

Bandy Lee was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. She is of Korean descent. As a teenager, Lee volunteered in Harlem as a tutor for homeless African-American children. Her grandfather was Geun-Young Lee, a physician who treated patients in need of care after the Korean War, who Lee says inspired her with a belief that practicing medicine also involves social responsibility.

Lee received her M.D. from the Yale University School of Medicine in 1994 and a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) from Yale Divinity School in 1995. Lee completed her medical internship at the Bellevue Hospital Center in New York. During her medical residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Lee was designated as the chief resident. She was then a research fellow at Harvard Medical School. Upon completion, she was offered a faculty position at Harvard University but turned it down to return to Yale.

For the record, Lee is about to turn 53. In this passage, we're reminded of her recent work concerning the matter of Donald J. Trump:

In 2017, Lee organized a conference at Yale on the mental health of Donald Trump with the participation of other psychiatrists including Robert Jay Lifton and Judith Lewis Herman. Following the conference, in March 2017, the American Psychiatric Association released a statement reaffirming the Goldwater rule that restricts comments related to the mental health of public figures without their consent or evaluation. Lee characterized the statement as silencing concerns raised by psychiatrists about the Trump presidency.

Lee reconvened the conference the following month, and later in the year edited The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, a collection of essays warning about the dangers of Trump's mental instability that became a New York Times bestseller...

In 2017 and 2018, Lee met with over fifty U.S. Congress members who considered the 25th Amendment and in 2019 held an interdisciplinary conference at the National Press Club, which discussed impeachment and was broadcast in full by C-SPAN.

As noted above, Lee edited The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, a collection of essays warning about the dangers of Trump's mental instability. 

The book became a New York Times bestseller. As best we can tell, the book has never been reviewed by the New York Times.

We've never seen Dr. Lee interviewed on MSNBC. Yesterday afternoon, Nicolle Wallace burned two segments of Deadline: White House interviewing Emilio Estevez and Martin Sheen about a film they made in 2010 and have decided to re-release.

Piffle like that makes fine cable fare, but Lee's work mustn't be mentioned. 

We mention Lee because of the increasingly bizarre behavior of Donald J. Trump. We've recommended pity for this apparently disordered man, but it's important that disordered people of this type be kept from attaining societal or political power.

As far as we know, you've never seen Dr. Lee interviewed on MSNBC. The hosts our flailing blue tribe loves are paid millions of dollars per year to obey the suits in such ways.

(You aren't allowed to know how many millions of dollars.)

Yesterday, we linked you to Dr. Lee's new essay at Medium. Today, we link you to it again, especially taking note of this brief passage:

"Approximately 4 percent of the U.S. population have sociopathy (6 percent of adult men and 2 percent of adult women). Approximately 25 percent of those with sociopathy have psychopathy: in other words, about 1 percent of the U.S. population (1.2 percent of adult men and 0.3 to 0.7 percent of adult women)."

Six percent of adult males can be diagnosed as "sociopaths." For about a quarter of such disordered people, the diagnosis can get even worse.

We've cited statistics like that before, but the people who tell you the stories you like don't think you need to wonder about such things. They refuse to interview people like Dr. Lee about matters of the highest importance.

There's much more to say about this topic. Lee has discussed the medical specialist's "duty to warn." For today, we'll discuss the literate citizen's duty to report and question.

Also, why not this: Last fall, Joshua Kendall wrote a lengthy profile of Lee for Mother Jones. It appeared beneath these headlines:

The Psychiatrist Who Warned Us That Donald Trump Would Unleash Violence Was Absolutely Right
The vindication of Bandy Lee.

For the record—as part of Dr. Lee's vindication, she has been fired by Yale.

Kendall discusses these matters with fluency. Why not give his profile a look? 


44 comments:

  1. The second amendment is evil.

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  2. We don't need Dr. Lee to tell us how the country would do under a Trump Presidency, because we have actual experience. During Trump's reign, no new wars were started, NK stopped their provocative talk, Israel signed a peace agreement with several neighbors, the economy boomed, job opportunities soared, crime went down, and illegal immigration went down.

    These results were particularly valuable to poor minorities, since they often live in crime-ridden neighborhoods and they need employment opportunities.

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    Replies
    1. Homicide surged in the last year of Trump’s term.

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    2. David,
      They live in crime-ridden neighborhoods because the police stopped doing their jobs, when the people wanted to hold them accountable for their actions. You KNOW this. You were the one who pointed it out at TDH the police are running a protection racket (which I appreciate you doing for us).

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    3. All we had to do was let Russia have Ukraine. Oddly, the Ukrainians resisted.

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    4. "no new wars were started, NK stopped their provocative talk, Israel signed a peace agreement with several neighbors,"
      I'll bite.
      Deal with House Republicans, running around with their hair on fire about the deficit (which is real concern, and not at all an act, LOL), by calling their bluff, and making them slash the defense budget. If they want to accuse Democrats of not wanting to defend the country, instead of tossing child nutrition and mental health programs overboard. Let 'em. It's a twofer, since it also shows how their "deep concern for children", like their deep concern about the deficit, is nothing but bullshit.

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    5. Trump "reigned", eh David? You fascist treasonous prick.

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    6. That's your list, huh David? You forgot to add turning this country into a hellhole for women's rights but filling the federal courts with unqualified religious christo-fascists. That's his legacy, not any of the bullshit you repeatedly post here.

      By the way, asshole, how's the black unemployment rate looking lately? You used to follow every nick and tick when the naked emperor was "reigning". You seem to be very silent about it since Biden started his service to our country.

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    7. Dr Lee accurately describes our society with Republicans in power, she says they are dragging us down a death spiral.

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    8. Huge transfer of capital to the already super rich, Dave no doubt loved that. But it blew a hole in the deficit.

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    9. @4:09 In Trump's term, fewer people were murdered. In Biden's term, more people are murdered. Which one deserves the name DEATH spiral?

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    10. David, are you counting the hundreds of thousands of citizens trump killed by trying to gaslight a global pandemic?

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    11. Under Trump:
      The federal debt held by the public went up, from $14.4 trillion to $21.6 trillion.
      The number of people lacking health insurance rose by 3 million.
      The economy lost 2.9 million jobs. The unemployment rate increased by 1.6 percentage points to 6.3%.
      He also attempted a fckng coup for fcks sake.

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    12. 4:16 The Republicans have earned the death spiral moniker, your claim is misleading and false.

      Under Trump and the Republicans, 2020 experienced the highest increase in the murder rate in decades, it sharply rose to 7.8/100k, in 2021 it declined to about 6.9/100k, and in 2022 declined further, stats aren’t fully compiled but looks like a 2% decline.

      The murder rate is in large part a function of the type and amount of guns available, so the increase is directly related to Republican policies and how they govern.

      Furthermore, Trump failed to respond to Covid, which lead to the unnecessary deaths of over 1 million Americans. That’s blood on Trump’s tiny hands, as well as all Republican hands.

      The Republican world view is one where dominance and hierarchy reign, where massive inequalities are enforced, oppressions are enforced; it’s a rat race, dog eat dog, knife edge, tightrope, everyone out for themselves existence. It’s a death spiral.

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    13. During Trump’s presidency there were 45 combat deaths among U.S. service members reported in Afghanistan, as well as 18 “non-hostile” deaths, according to the Pentagon's Defense Casualty Analysis System. The Trump / Pompeo Afghanistan surrender plan included the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners. Biden extended Trump's Afghan evacuation date a few months where no U.S. soldiers were killed by the Taliban. (Horribly there were 13 soldiers killed by an ISIS faction that was an enemy of the Taliban in an effort to stir stuff up and prolong U.S. presence.)

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    14. @4:42 claimed that "Trump failed to respond to Covid, which lead (sic) to the unnecessary deaths of over 1 million Americans." Actually, Trump managed to speed the development, approval, and manufacturing of the covid vaccine. Can you name anything that Biden did about covid?

      BTW more Americans died of covid during Biden's term than during Trump's term.

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    15. Operation Warp Speed is one of Trump’s genuine successes, but he doesn’t urge his followers to get vaxed.

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    16. Unlike Trump, Biden addressed anti-vax disinformation and promoted distribution of the vaccine and he encouraged mask wearing and social distancing. Trump promoted ivermectin and other quack remedies, including ones his buddies had a financial interest in. Trump stayed out of the way of US scientists but do not oppose anti-vax hysteria.

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    17. More deaths in 2021 because the omicron and dela variants were more transmissible (easier to catch) and people began relaxing their masking & distancing and returned to normal behavior (too soon).

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    18. Trump is amoron, who tried to gaslight a global pandemic like it was some common "in the bag for the Republican Party" NY Times political reporter.

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    19. 9:19 and 9:44 this is false and misleading.

      Trump had nothing to do with Warp Speed or anything related to developing a vaccine. Warp Speed was invented and implemented by the FDA, and was funded by Congress; Trump had zero to do with it.

      Aside from Biden having governed with Covid as a pandemic over twice the duration that Trump did, Trump baked in the future deadly impact of Covid by not appropriately responding to it. The claim that Biden has had more Covid deaths is misleading, disingenuous, and ghoulish.

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    20. Furthermore, Warp speed was not involved in the development of all Covid vaccines and cannot be claimed to have sped up their development universally. The British did not use Warp speed money, for example. The Republicans and Fox news via their usual disinformation, made vaccination a highly politicized activity after Biden was elected. In Florida this was profoundly the case and contributed to many avoidable deaths. DeSantis brought in a secretary of health who was anti vaccination and was called out by the medical community for misreading data purposefully and DeSantis convened a commission to investigate vaccine side effects. His self proclaimed success at managing the pandemic statewide effects the many unnecessary deaths, ironically of right wing individuals who bought into the Fox / DeSantis anti vaccination mantra.

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  3. Republicans should support statehood for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

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  4. Salaries of cable hosts are available online using google. Why does Somerby say such stuff without checking?

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  5. We live in a giant spiral galaxy.

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    1. We live in a spiral galaxy which is larger than most.

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    2. Astronomers say it’s of moderate size.

      In a few billion years it will collide with another galaxy, around the same time the sun will expand, killing all life on earth…that might still exist at that time, so probably mostly insects and microbes.

      We live in a moderately-sized spiral galaxy.

      However our universe is the biggest ever.

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    3. Most galaxies are smaller than ours, but some are much bigger. You could say the same about the Sun.

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    4. 6:00 can you provide a source? Not challenging the accuracy of your claim, just looking to learn.

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    5. Most galaxies are dwarves.

      https://stardate.org/radio/program/2020-03-24

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    6. I don’t know if most galaxies are dwarf galaxies (and dwarf galaxies seem to be a function of full galaxies, so perhaps not pertinent to the issue), but it does seem possible that most dwarf galaxies are not spiral galaxies.

      Furthermore, according to a study on galaxy size, the Milky Way is slightly below average in size, from Wikipedia:

      “ The paper concludes that the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy were not overly large spiral galaxies and as well as one of the largest known (if the former not being the largest) as previously widely believed, but rather average ordinary spiral galaxies.”

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  6. Bob, dude, please try the Google. Lee's book was covered for ten minutes on Joy Reid's show. CNN interviewed her. MSNBC had an article covering the book. Mary Trump,
    a psychologist and author, niece of former president Donald Trump, is a regular MSNBC contributor who details Trump's sociopathic behavior. You are becoming a poorly informed crank.

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    Replies
    1. Bob has sadly declined.

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    2. Cut-and-paste day at the Howler.

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  7. Bandy Lee has no special qualifications in her field to diagnose Trump or talk about the danger a person like him could pose. It isn't her subfield of clinical psychology.

    But more than that, it is sufficient to argue that he would not make a good president (as he clearly did not) instead of engage in medical discussion. Nothing has prevented Somerby or anyone else from linking Trump's behavior back to the needs of the presidency and explaining why what he does is bad for our country. The goal should be to encourage every voter to NOT vote for Trump. Somerby doesn't do that much at all. If Somerby truly believes that votes can be detached from the red tribe, he has done nothing at all to achieve that end.

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  8. Homicides in Jackson FL were up 27% this year, so the Republican mayor has just been voted out.

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    1. The Republican candidate carried the baggage of having been involved, as a city council member, in what has been described as the most egregious attempted fraud perpetrated on a municipality in US history. The Republican mayor was involved in setting it up, though not indicted. Lining their and their donors' pockets as usual. They lost the election last night despite, or perhaps because of a very negative campaign, and DeSantis's endorsement. Do not assume the governor is re-electable in Florida with almost daily antics that have made him very unlikable.

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  9. Bandy Lee wrote this, which flies 100% in the face of Somerby’s screeds about “Trump Trump Trump Trump jail”, so his hypocrisy is noted:

    “Why Biden Needs to Throw the Book at Trump

    Healing Cannot—and Should Not—Occur Without Prosecution”

    https://www.dcreport.org/2020/12/07/prosecution-why-biden-needs-to-throw-the-book-at-trump/

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  10. Personally, I think the USA has more than enough money to provide every man, woman, and child a fee education, healthcare, housing, and a job, while still having enough money to fund our military.
    However, in the name of bi-partisanship, and reaching across the aisle, I now support zeroing out the defense budget, for those who think the richest nation in the history of mankind are a bunch of deadbeats.
    BTW, more people should listen to, and agree with "the Others" this way.

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  11. Not so fast, Donny.
    Rudy Giuliani is making a powerful bid to ride this story to the 2024 Republican Nomination for President. Read it yourself.
    Rudy's checking all the Republican boxes (corruption, sexual harassment, wage theft, treason, etc). He's working hard to give the Republican voter exactly what they like.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/giuliani-accused-offering-sell-trump-pardons-2-million-new-lawsuit-rcna84569

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  12. Thank you Bob for re-posting the link to Doctor Bandy. Very interesting indeed.
    Leroy

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