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John D. Gartner is an American psychologist, psychotherapist, author, activist, and former part-time assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School.
Gartner graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, received a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, then completed his post-doctoral training at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. [1]
Gartner is a psychotherapist with private practices in Baltimore and Manhattan, [2] where he specialized in the treatment of borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder and depression. He was a part-time professor, until 2015, for 28 years at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, [3] and is a widely published author of books, and of articles for scientific and other journals. [4]
Dr. John Gartner has described himself as a member of "The Resistance" against Donald Trump, stating:
"I went through a similar process like some of the other people you have spoken to who have decided to step away from being active members of "the resistance." For five years I did that work with total energy and commitment. I was sounding the alarm about Trump basically every day. I did hundreds of interviews. I made it my full-time job like I was at war. But after five years, when Biden was inaugurated, I thought, okay, the war's over, I can take off my metaphorical uniform." [5]
Gartner has described Trump as "an animal" who is "convinced that he actually believes that he has some type of God-like powers". [6] Gartner has described Donald Trump as "unwell, dangerously unfit, malignant personality who has reaped massive destruction", who is "hypomanic", "showing gross signs of dementia", and other mental illness and personality disorders.
In the first months of 2017 Gartner collected the signatures of more than 25,000 mental health professionals. The petition, "Mental Health Professionals Declare Trump is Mentally Ill And Must Be Removed", was sent to the Minority leader, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York. [7] At the end of April 2017, Gartner sent the petition to Washington D.C., with more than 41,000 signatures. [3]
The petition's declaration stated that: We, the undersigned mental health professionals (please state your degree), believe in our professional judgment that Donald Trump manifests a serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President of the United States. And we respectfully request he be removed from office, according to article 4 of the 25th amendment to the Constitution, which states that the president will be replaced if he is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office". [8]
According to Gartner, Trump's mental handicaps are a mixture of narcissism, paranoia, sociopathy and a measure of sadism. [9]
In 2017, Gartner founded Duty To Warn, an organization of mental health professionals and laypersons who consider it their duty to warn patients, clients and the community-at-large, when aware of potential danger. [10] [11]
In an attempt to raise public awareness about Donald Trump’s apparent cognitive challenges and the extreme danger they represent to the nation if he were to take back the White House in the 2024 election, Gartner has started a petition at Change.org called “We diagnose Trump with probable dementia: A petition for licensed professionals only.” [12]
Gartner is the author of numerous scholarly articles and several books, including:
Psychology is the study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both conscious and unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feelings, and motives. Psychology is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between the natural and social sciences. Biological psychologists seek an understanding of the emergent properties of brains, linking the discipline to neuroscience. As social scientists, psychologists aim to understand the behavior of individuals and groups.
Popular psychology refers to the concepts and theories about human mental life and behavior that are supposedly based on psychology and are considered credible and accepted by the wider populace. The concept is cognate with the human potential movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Phillip Calvin McGraw, known professionally as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality and author, best known for hosting the talk show Dr. Phil. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased renewing his license to practice psychology in 2006.
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Alan J. Lipman is an American clinical psychologist and musician, who is currently a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the George Washington University Medical Center and the director of the Center for the Study of Violence.
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Cyclothymia, also known as cyclothymic disorder, psychothemia / psychothymia, bipolar III, affective personality disorder and cyclothymic personality disorder, is a mental and behavioural disorder that involves numerous periods of symptoms of depression and periods of symptoms of elevated mood. These symptoms, however, are not sufficient to indicate a major depressive episode or a manic episode. Symptoms must last for more than one year in children and two years in adults.
The Goldwater rule is Section 7 in the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Principles of Medical Ethics, which states that psychiatrists have a responsibility to participate in activities contributing to the improvement of the community and the betterment of public health, and when they are asked to comment on public figures, they refrain from diagnosing, which requires a personal examination and consent. It is named after former US Senator and 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater.
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Brenda Nelle Major is an American social psychologist and distinguished professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she heads the Self and Social Identity Lab.
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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.
Jonathan Raphael Cohen is an American diplomat and most recently served as the United States Ambassador to Egypt from November 17, 2019 to March 31, 2022. He previously served as the United States Deputy Representative to the United Nations. From August 2016 to June 2018 he served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. He was nominated by President Donald Trump in early 2018 to become United States Deputy Representative to the United Nations and was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on May 24, 2018. On January 1, 2019, Cohen assumed acting duties of Ambassador to the United Nations following the resignation of Nikki Haley the previous day; with the installation of her successor Kelly Craft in September, he relinquished those duties.
Ramani Suryakantham Durvasula is an American clinical psychologist, retired professor of psychology, media expert, and author. She has appeared on media outlets discussing narcissistic personality disorder and narcissistic abuse, including Red Table Talk, Bravo, the Lifetime Movie Network, National Geographic, and the History Channel, as well as programs such as the TODAY show and Good Morning America.
James Arthur Coan, Jr. is an American affective neuroscientist, clinical psychologist, writer, podcast host, human rights activist, and psychology professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where he serves as director of the Virginia Affective Neuroscience Laboratory.
Jerrold Morton Post was an American psychiatrist and author. He was an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) and the founder of the Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior. Post created a number of "psychobiographies" on notable individuals during his tenure at the C.I.A. and is credited in some sources as inventing the field of political psychology.
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