With women pledging to break up with their boyfriends and divorce their husbands over the Trump victory, Yale University chief psychiatry resident Dr. Amanda Calhoun is advising that it may also be necessary for your mental health to cut off your family and friends who supported Trump. In that way, you can avoid being “triggered” by opposing political views — much like Yale itself.
As academics, we are dealing with the election on campuses across America. After the election, I had some valuable discussions with students who supported Harris and some who supported Trump. I wish there would be more interaction between the two groups. That is why this story stood out for me. I do not believe that further separation or isolation will help this country or these individuals.
Dr. Calhoun went on MSNBC’s Joy Reid to offer the curious take on good mental health. Reid has spent the week condemning the majority of voters (particularly minority voters) in the nation as racists and misogynists for the Trump victory.
Reid joined a rising tide of rage, which I discussed in my column this weekend. Dr. Calhoun added her voice to the madness.
“So, if you are going into a situation where you have family members, where you have close 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…
…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.”
There is another possibility. You can try to resolve those feelings with people who you previously liked or loved. It may actually help to discuss these issues outside of the echo chamber of your political associations.
Of course, Yale University itself has followed this advice for years by removing faculty with opposing views for the general welfare of the community. Surveys show that 77% of Yale faculty “are registered as Democrats or have conducted political activity that heavily or exclusively supports Democrats; under 3% are Republican.” Furthermore, among 16 surveyed departments, “over 57%, have no registered Republicans at all. Across 14 departments in the Social Sciences and Humanities, the report identified 312 Democrat faculty (88%) and only 4 Republicans (1.1%), a ratio of around 78 to 1.”
Now, that is mental tranquility.
The suggestion that it may be “triggering” to see family and friends is not unique to Yale’s psychiatric staff.
Across the country, women have been cutting their hair and joining the Korean 4B movement—bihon (no marriage), bichulsan (no childbirth), biyeonae (no dating), and bisekseu (no sex). One is quoted as saying, “I fear The Handmaid’s Tale will become our reality.”
It is a curious response since figures like Reid blame white women for the loss. Trump won white women voters by eight points at 53 percent. Harris actually fell slightly in the support of women overall. Conversely, roughly 43 percent of men voted for Harris. Forty percent of women under 30 voted for Trump.
Yet I watched one deranged voter say that she is thinking of buying a “Glock” and shooting the first man who comes near her. If so, she would have an over 4 out of 10 likelihood of shooting a fellow Harris supporter.
None of this is good for our nation’s mental health and suggesting that people retreat further into their silos does not make for particularly healthy advice.
As discussed in my book, The Indispensable Right, we have become a nation of rage addicts. Taking another hit of rage will do little to break that addiction.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage” (Simon & Schuster, 2024).
Back when Bush was President it was BDS. Then Trump gained office and TDS was pushed heavily by MSM. Any Republican gaining the Presidency is attacked by the Left and MSM in all ways for no reason except for Left Propaganda. People that listen and buy into this are really stupid. These people do not research candidates for how they have been, what they do, what they believe, and what they plan to do, which is needed before you vote.
It does not matter what your education level is if you do not follow the actual guideline of researching candidates no matter if they are Left, Right, Democrat, Republican, Green, or Independent. Some person that is suppose to be giving people expert knowledge such as a Psychiatrist or Teacher should not be picking one side or person over another but should be telling people to research and how to do it.
As a Trump supporter, I fully support this.
Trump’s election hurt my livelihood. I am a bankruptcy attorney.
A mentally ill, Yale PHD Mental health expert.
The do realize that we couldn’t care less, don’t they?
Next stop, suicide.
Why not secede? Why don’t ALL Leftists move to California or abroad and renounce their US citizenship?
DO IT!
PLEASE, we are already up to our eyeballs with lunatics in California…we don’t need any more. These folks simply cannot exist outside of their rapidly collapsing echo chambers…I imagine many of them have already brought on familial rejection due to both their bizarre take on what is before their eyes, and vehement refusal to engage in any self-examination/introspection.
Pleeeessseee cut me off. Shut your cake holes and disappear! And remove all leftist news, shows, and entertainments too as a protest to me… what a panacea I would enjoy. (But these hypocrites won’t stop…)
I personally wrote off all democrats in 2020 and am much happier for it. These idiots have nothing to contribute to decent society and need to be ignored. We do not need them for anything. There are plenty of decent, attractive, compassionate, intelligent conservatives to fill our lives with happiness. Perverts, traitors and idiots are not the type of people I wish to socialize with in any fashion.
These ‘liberals’ are merely proving one thing: all the aspersions they cast at others are merely projections of their own psychosis.
For 20 years, as I was trying desperately to get others to see the horrificly maimed vax injured children, I heard nothing from family and ‘friends’ except “Shut up.”
I might interact with those monsters again, but only after I’ve received a sincere apology. Not holding my breath.
I have absolutely zero problem with being shunned by the left. In fact, I encourage and welcome it! They’re nothing but lying, delusional parasites. Blind hatred, party over country and only listening to those voices that agree with them. Petulant children…every, last one!
I mean this with all due respect — I would not tell you to “shut up”, but I would tell you to do your research instead of spouting nonsense. There is no credible research pointing to “vax injured children”. There is, however, a lot of propaganda from people who have decided vaccines cause all sorts of horrific problems. Not because research supports those claims, but because they have decided in their own minds it must be so.
Yes, medicine — ALL medicine including holistic alternatives — can have side effects and make a VERY SMALL MINORITY of people who take said medicine (modern medicine, herbs, holistic oils, alternative treatments, whatever) sick. But the MAJORITY of people taking modern medicine will have positive results. Moreover, the positive results that save lives and heal people, in general, far outweigh the risks. I have two people in my family who were maimed for life by Polio before the vaccine was available. Smallpox used to kill 30% of those who contracted it. Tetanus kills up to 20%. The list goes on and on. We no longer have these death rates because of advances in modern medicine that include effective vaccinations against the diseases.
But, you clearly don’t want to have a rational discussion about the facts with your friends. Instead, you seem just want to rant and expect them to start ranting with you. At some point, I imagine all your friends get to the point where all they can say is “shut up” since you won’t listen to reason (or do the real research yourself).
This is one of the problems with “isolation mentality”. Instead of having rational discussions where people walk away knowing more, there is just the echo chamber of group think — wright or wrong. Nobody learns, nobody grows, nobody learns to appreciate diversity of thinking — and how it can make all of us stronger and better.
Guys: if your girl 4B’s you, you’re prolly not missing much.
We won’t feel cut off, we’ll feel liberated!
Joy Reid my LIPS!!
Thank God, yes, please cut us off! I’m so sick and tired of screaming leftist harpies I could PUKE!!!!!!!
Does this mean that the ladies on the View will stop talking to America? They stopped listening a very long time ago.
I don’t know if the word triggered would apply to them. How about “detonated” ? Does this Yale psychiatrist have any prescriptions for TDS?
This has already happened when he first got elected. I don’t have any more Liberal friends. It was kind of sad at first but I am used to it now. They didn’t really return when Biden was elected either. Now, I just avoid Liberals. Liberals need Conservative allies on the environmental front. There’s a lot of middle ground that gets lots over stupid advice like this.
I would like little more than for lib-loons to kindly STFU and go away.