Addressing the Elephant in the Room: Stories of Ethical Activism in the Age of Trump

Abstract

When we witness an act of heroism, such as an individual standing in front of a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square or indigenous peoples defending their lands against corporations, we may wonder about the motivations and psychology of such brave souls. What causes a person to step up and sacrifice for the greater good, even while risking death or personal harm?

In the past several years in the United States and other countries, an upsurge in political and social activism has occurred in response to extreme swings in ideology, culture, and politics that threaten to curtail such action. These extremes have given some more reasons to speak out, but have made it more dangerous as well, even provoking threats of violence (as one of the editors of this volume experienced) or institutional silencing.

It seemed time to explore questions in this special edition of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, such as: What motivates people to risk their safety, reputation, relationships, financial stability, health, or career to speak out? Who are their role models? What is their thought process and their ethical and scholarly basis for crossing that threshold? What are the ethical considerations, psychological challenges, and personal or social detriments to activism?

Activism takes a certain level of courage, a character trait that is indicative of the universality of many ethical and moral principles. As individuals and societies, we generally have great respect for the valor of those who figuratively or literally fall on a grenade in acts of selfless bravery.

Personal character is a component of virtue ethics, arising from Greek philosophers, notably Aristotle. Becoming a social activist and speaking up against injustice could rightly be considered a virtue, while staying silent in the face of morally repugnant words or actions signals an abandonment of one’s convictions—or moral cowardice.

The Greek word eudaimonia is translated variously as “well-being,” “happiness,” “blessedness,” and in the context of virtue ethics, “human flourishing” (Pojman & Fieser, 2009). It describes that state a person achieves by living the proper human life, an outcome of practicing virtues such as courage, magnanimity, truthfulness, and modesty. Social activists can be described as engaging in virtuous behavior based on their ethics, which may result in eudaimonia, or living the proper life.

In another ancient spiritual tradition, Hinduism, there are four spiritual paths, one of which is karma yoga. This path emphasizes the prayerfulness of “right action” or humble, selfless service toward a purpose larger than the egoistic self, without attachment to consequences for the self.

Humanist philosophy encourages us to engage in decent, virtuous behavior for its own sake, rather than for fear of the punishment of hell or the rewards of heaven, to use a Christian construct.

Secular humanism attempts to articulate what we as humans hold in common without resorting to religious assumptions. What we should hold in common are moral reactions to immoral behavior, especially behavior that affects millions of people, as that of a national leader. At a deeper psychological level, our emotions give rise to our morals and guide our behavior (ethical or otherwise). In drawing a line from emotional experiencing to virtuous acts, we could consider that “heaven” is present in this world and in the heart when we engage in virtuous behavior, and “hell” is also in the heart when we engage in immoral behavior.

It can be a worthy pursuit to ponder: Do we have the virtue of genuine, altruistic courage to speak up when our morals are pushed to the limit? As professionals in mental health, can and should we offer wisdom, or at least be an example to provide guidance on this intimate connection between emotional functioning and moral choice?

Providing their perspective on these topics are three leaders of the current wave of activism in the mental health profession: Leonard L. Glass, MD, MPH; Edwin B. Fisher, PhD; and Bandy Lee, MD, MDiv. They discuss the polarities of personal sacrifices and friendships gained in their decision to become professional activists by publicly writing and speaking about the mental health of Donald J. Trump.

William J. Doherty, PhD, a collaborator who has chosen to keep a lower profile, takes us on his journey as a citizen professional, interacting with communities in order to make a positive social impact. With the Trump presidency, he embarked on healing the divide among ordinary Americans by energizing therapists to promote democracy in our offices and communities.

Steve Wruble, MD, follows up on his chapter in The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, where he describes the impact Trump has had on his relationship with his observant Orthodox Jewish father who voted for Trump. In addition, he describes how Trump’s toxic relationship with his own powerful father continues to spill out in his present behavior.

Howard Covitz, PhD, posits that the outrageous behavior of autocratic leaders is intended to split the populace into separate groups that all mimic the autocrat’s behavior. With awareness, we can pull ourselves out.

Kevin Washington, PhD, documents his evolution in understanding the traumatic effects of racism here in America and abroad. He has developed his own unique psychology and psychotherapeutic model to address these deep-seated issues.

Ronna Milo Haglili, MA, discusses how excessive, overwhelming contact with trauma through activism may, in certain situations, engender risks of retraumatization and psychic stagnation. Alternatively, social activism can also serve as a facilitator of intrapsychic movement and trauma transformation.

Elizabeth Mika, MA, born and raised in communist Poland, describes how similar the behaviors she sees in Trump are in comparison to the leaders she witnessed growing up. She was surprised by the lack of awareness and response by mainstream Americans to Trump’s obvious manifestation of dangerous behaviors to maintain power and control.

Harper West, MA, advocates for awareness of the emotion of indignation in clinical and cultural contexts as a moral response to abusive individuals in our interpersonal relationships and political leaders. She recommends a new case formulation paradigm that addresses the immorality that arises from poor shame tolerance and offers professional and societal solutions to prevent another authoritarian leader.

The editors then close with the epilogue . . .

Footnotes

ORCID iDs

Harper West

Steve Wruble

Bandy X. Lee

Author Biographies

Harper West, MA, LLP, is a licensed psychotherapist in Clarkston, Michigan. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in journalism and worked in corporate communications, later earning a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Michigan School of Professional Psychology. She contributed to the bestselling book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Professionals Assess a President. Harper is the developer of Self-Acceptance Psychology, which challenges the biological model of mental disorders and offers a new paradigm that reframes emotional problems as adaptive responses to fear, trauma, shame, and lack of secure attachment (). Her self-help book Pack Leader Psychology won an IBPA Ben Franklin Award for Psychology.

Steve Wruble, MD is a board-certified child and adult psychiatrist in private practice in Manhattan and Ridgewood, NJ, at the Venn Center. He specializes in trauma, anxiety disorders and ADHD. He attended medical school in his hometown of Memphis, TN, and did his psychiatry residency at Northwestern University. He did his child psychiatry fellowship at the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he was the Chief Fellow. Steve is an accomplished singer-songwriter, storyteller, and playwright. He won The Moth StorySLAM and debuts his solo show off Broadway in April or May 2020.

Bandy X. Lee, MD, MDiv, is a forensic psychiatrist on the faculty of Yale School of Medicine. In addition to her clinical work in correctional and public-sector settings, she served as Director of Research for the Center for the Study of Violence. She then cofounded Yale’s Violence and Health Study Group and leads an academic collaborators group for the World Health Organization. She has consulted with governments to set up violence prevention programs internationally and within the United States, as well as helped initiate reforms at New York City’s Rikers Island Correctional Center. She teaches at Yale Law School and Yale College. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, has edited 11 academic books, and has authored the textbook Violence (Wiley-Blackwell, 2019). She held an ethics conference on the professional obligation to society leading to her editing The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President (2017) and The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President (2019).

References

Pojman

L. P.

Fieser

(2009). Virtue theory. In ethics: Discovering right and wrong (6th ed., pp. 146-169). Wadsworth.