President-elect requires psychological fitness test

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Every member of the Secret Service tasked with protecting the president must undergo a psychological evaluation to ensure their fitness for the job. But until now, there has never been a need for a psychological exam for the person elected to protect the nation. The need is obvious. When one’s thoughts, words and deeds don’t represent identical ethical standards, that person’s mind is dis-integrated and therefore, unpredictable. When a person’s communications display thought patterns that are mainly reactive and seldom proactive, they are ill-equipped to deal with the future.

The nation needs to be informed, as the intelligence community informed us about Russian attacks on our electoral process. Since it is the business of the Society of Clinical Psychology to observe personal quirks and foibles that get in the way of success living, wouldn’t it be nice if that body of analysts, like the intelligence community, pooled their observations to develop a statement of fitness-for-office for the president elect?

Robert Graef

Lake Stevens