‘It may be essential for your mental health’
The chief psychiatry resident at the Yale School of Medicine recently said progressives/Democrats should avoid their Trump-voting relatives over the holiday season.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “The Reid Out” with host Joy Reid, Amanda Calhoun (pictured, at right) said if you have relatives or friends “who you know have voted in ways that are against you … it’s completely fine to not be around those people and to tell them why,” Fox News reports.
In response to Reid’s allegation that Trump is “against Americans’ rights” (such as those for LGBTQ people), Calhoun said “You know, to say, ‘I have a problem with the way that you voted because it went against my very livelihood, and I’m not going to be around you this holiday. I need to take some space for me.’
“I think you should very much be entitled to do so, and I think it may be essential for your mental health.”
Calhoun also noted it is “absolutely” wrong to believe one is entitled to another family member’s time.
According to her faculty page, Calhoun “focuses on the mental health sequelae of anti-Black racism in children,” and is a Viola W. Bernard Social Justice and Health Equity Fellow.
“It’s completely fine to not be around those people and to tell them why. To say, I have a problem with the way that you voted…” –@AmandaJoyMD discussing taking care of yourself during this fraught time on #TheReidOut with Joy Reid. pic.twitter.com/YO7lIbn4Zq
— The ReidOut (@thereidout) November 9, 2024
Last year, Calhoun suggested physicians should wear body cameras so people can catch them acting racist — based on (racist) incidents she allegedly personally had witnessed.
“If hospitals and medical institutions want to make good on those anti-racism statements made in 2020, prove it: Have health care professionals wear body cameras,” Calhoun wrote. “As a patient, I would feel far more comfortable if they did. And as a doctor, I will volunteer to wear one first.”
In 2022, Calhoun claimed bad words could be just as bad as a physical assault: “Sometimes, jokes are not entertaining to those targeted by them, and can be just as detrimental as physical violence.”
Another (now-former) Yale psychiatrist, Bandy Lee, frequently had tried to convince anyone who would listen that Donald Trump was mentally “unfit” to hold the presidency during his first term.
Like many did in this year’s campaign season, Lee compared Trump to Hitler, wanted Nancy Pelosi to put a “72-hour hold” on him after he ordered a drone strike against a known terrorist, and said Trump puts “the survival of the human species” at risk.
MORE: ‘The Confederacy won,’ Emory professor says of Trump victory
IMAGE: The Reid Out/X
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