A former Yale University psychiatrist who backed Mary Trump’s assessment that former president “is mentally incapable of leading,” has sued the institution. Bandy Lee, Assistant Clinical Professor, Law and Psychiatry, and 17-year faculty member tweeted about the negative “influence that President Trump’s persona had on his ‘inner circle’, including Mr. Dershowitz;” as well as potential “shared psychosis” and taking on “Trump’s symptoms by contagion.” Dershowitz complained, Lee was eventually fired. In her complaint, Lee says she exercised Constitutionally protected free speech rights, and asserts five causes of action including wrongful termination.
The Tweet
A January 2020 tweet put the wheels in motion. By way of context, Lee’s complaint touches on the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, Dershowitz’s ties to Jeff Epstein, and Ukraine impeachment, where Dershowitz served as counsel for Trump. With that background, here is a key paragraph:
Before the completion of impeachment proceedings, on January 2, 2020, University of Minnesota Law Professor and Yale Law School alumnus Richard Painter tweeted and tagged Dr. Lee to Mr. Dershowitz’s characterization of his “perfect sex life,” stating that Dershowitz’s phrasing was similar to Trump’s recount of the “perfect” call. Dr. Lee responded, “Alan Dershowitz’s employing the odd use of ‘perfect’…might be dismissed as ordinary influence in most contexts.” She added that “given the severity and spread of ‘shared psychosis’ among just about all of Trump’s followers, a different scenario is more likely,” and that scenario was “that he has wholly taken on Trump’s symptoms by contagion.”
Dershowitz responded by calling for an investigation. Yale terminated Lee, two months later, in March 2020. Lee’s attempts to appeal the decision fell flat, and now we have a public lawsuit.
Dershowitz Complains & A Warning for Lee
Among Dershowtiz’s complaints is that “Dr. Bandy Lee of the Yale Medical School has publicly ‘diagnosed’ me as ‘psychotic,’ based on my legal and political views, and without ever examining or even meeting me.”
Yale warned Lee to stop making such public statements about the former President. According to the University, they conflict with the American Psychiatric Association’s reinterpretation of the Goldwater Rule in March 2017. The revised interpretation “created a gag order recommending that its members not comment on public figures, even without diagnosing them and even where there is a responsibility to society to protect public health.”
Lee is not a member of the association, and according to the complaint: “Dr. Lee believed the newly reinterpreted Goldwater Rule was in conflict with psychiatrists’ duties, responsibilities, and role in the interest of public health in light of her belief that Donald Trump posed a dangerous threat to this country and the world.”
From a non-medical professional perspective, Lee sure does seem to have a point. At least she does in our view.
In any event, Lee was told the University “would be compelled to ‘terminate [her] teaching role’” if she continued with such public statements.
Termination
The Harvard educated psychiatrist — who has published “almost 300 op-eds in outlets such as The Guardian, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Independent, and Politico, as well as The New York Times bestseller, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President (Macmillan, 2017 and 2019)” — continued to tweet about Trump and was terminated on May 17, 2020.
Yesterday, Lee filed her complaint against Yale University in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.
In the event the case does settle early, we imagine it will be one worth keeping an eye on.
Just imagine the discovery!
You can also find me at @DonLew87.
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