5 episodes

Dr. Gartner is a leading psychologist, psychotherapist, author, activist, and long-time former part-time assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School. An expert in malignant narcissism, John recognized early on that Trump was unfit and dangerous. One of those who helped lead the charge is our co-host, Dr. Harry Segal, a senior lecturer in psychology at Cornell University. In 2017, Dr. Gartner created the organization Duty To Warn and was joined by thousands of mental health professionals from around the country who felt a duty to warn the population about Trump’s narcissism.

Shrinking Trump Really American Media

    • News
    • 4.7 • 44 Ratings

Dr. Gartner is a leading psychologist, psychotherapist, author, activist, and long-time former part-time assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School. An expert in malignant narcissism, John recognized early on that Trump was unfit and dangerous. One of those who helped lead the charge is our co-host, Dr. Harry Segal, a senior lecturer in psychology at Cornell University. In 2017, Dr. Gartner created the organization Duty To Warn and was joined by thousands of mental health professionals from around the country who felt a duty to warn the population about Trump’s narcissism.

    Special Edition: Conviction Day episode, "This is an emergency."

    Special Edition: Conviction Day episode, "This is an emergency."

    Top Psychologists John Gartner and Harry Segal discuss with Dr. Lance Dodes the psychological fallout America will have to brace itself for, following the first conviction of an unhinged former President in history on Really American's SMASH HIT podcast, Shrinking Trump.

    This special episode is an "emergency session” of the iTunes chart-topping podcast to discuss fallout from the unstable Republican presidential candidate that could have dire consequences.

    Our site: https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/shrinking-trump 

    Subscribe on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shrinking-trump/id1745797271 

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    Returning to the show for this special is our friend Dr. Dodes, a retired assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. In this episode, Lance will be helping our hosts psychoanalyze Trump’s unhinged press conference from the morning after he was convicted of 34 felonies. 

    “Right now, Donald Trump is a wounded animal, " John said. “There's nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal. And there's really nothing more dangerous than a wounded malignant narcissist.”

    Using video and direct quotes, our hosts provide you with an in-depth analysis of how Trump’s projection, narcissism, sociopathy, and dementia were on full display in his sham of a press conference. “Remember, this is a press conference to explain why he's been convicted of 34 felonies,” said Dr. Gartner. “But from the way he presents it, you'd think he was there to accept an award.”

    Dr. Dodes walks us through his own diagnosis of Trump’s performance, and helps us understand the dangerous psychology of how a now-wounded malignant narcissist like Trump would respond if he were to regain power. He also gives us a rundown of the deranged cult mentality that empowers charismatic leaders like Trump, and the interpersonal effects his distorted beliefs have on his followers.

    Trump’s ability to manipulate the truth rests in his ability to repeat his lies over and over. But he’s also helped by an army of surrogates who parrot his false reality. In this episode, we’ll be taking a hard look at how the conviction and these competing realities might affect the psychology of voters. 

    There’s also a chilling conversation comparing Trump’s malignant narcissism to Hitler’s that you are not going to want to miss. “I've been saying now for six years that Donald Trump is the American Hitler,” John explained. “And immigrants are the new Jews.”

    Dr. Segal said it best when sounding the alarm. “We're not saying this as political activists,” he said. “We're talking about a very disturbed person with tremendous power and influence saying psychotic things that are organized around evoking rage and fear in his supporters.”

    • 51 min
    "He Floats In And Out of Cognitive Reality"

    "He Floats In And Out of Cognitive Reality"

    In the latest episode of this TOP-RANKED podcast, psychologists John Gartner and Harry Segal are joined by Dr. Justin Frank, an expert in psychiatry and psychoanalysis, to pinpoint the root cause of Donald Trump’s psychopathy.

    Our site: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/shrinking-trump 

    Subscribe on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shrinking-trump/id1745797271 

    Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4xuuqHxzruLEsQXtTuJjP4 

    Subscribe on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a101a15a-8b18-49c8-b556-c201aece30ee/shrinking-trump 

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    Dr. Justin Frank is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at George Washington University Medical Center who practices and teaches psychoanalysis in Washington, DC. He’s also the author of Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President, a psychological biography of Trump.

    Justin provides our listeners with his theory as to why Trump behaves the way he does, and it might just leave you stunned. You absolutely will not want to miss his insight into how and why the now-convicted felon became a prolific liar in the first place. “One of the biggest psychological sources of lying is when a person is lied to and they understand it,” he said. “So they start lying to other people.” 

    Dr. Frank also pinpoints where the psychological void in Donald Trump’s life likely originated. In this interview you’ll find out exactly how that emptiness manifests itself in all of Trump’s actions, and get a stark view of what happens when that level of psychopathy meets dementia. 

    We’ll kick off the show with another great segment of “Dementia Roundup,” where John and Harry share video of Trump’s most bizarre statements and behaviors from the week to highlight the mounting evidence of his cognitive decline. 

    You’ll also get to hear another segment of “Good News, Bad News,” where we pick apart the best and worst of the mainstream media’s coverage of Biden and Trump’s cognitive health. This week we’re looking at coverage of some wildly false and highly unqualified claims made by some Congressional Republicans. 

    “It's worse than irresponsible,” John said. “I want to be clear. I'm not using this term lightly. These people are psychopaths.”

    We hope you’ll join us each week where, like a session, we’ll be analyzing Trump’s disturbing psychopathy, personality disorder, and signs of dementia.

    “Tell your friends we’re here. We are trying to help educate the public about what we see as a dangerous decline of Trump's cognitive functioning,” said Harry, “which is happening in addition to a severe personality disorder known as malignant narcissism. The cognitive decline is intermittent. The psychopathology is constant.”

    • 1 hr 1 min
    The Brakes Are Not Working on His Frontal Lobes

    The Brakes Are Not Working on His Frontal Lobes

    Top Psychologists John Gartner and Harry Segal are joined by Emily and Mitchell Clionsky, experts in dementia, to outline the specific symptoms of Trump's mental decline on Really American's SMASH HIT podcast, Shrinking Trump.
    Our site: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/shrinking-trump
    Subscribe on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shrinking-trump/id1745797271
    Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4xuuqHxzruLEsQXtTuJjP4
    Subscribe on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a101a15a-8b18-49c8-b556-c201aece30ee/shrinking-trump
    Subscribe on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shrinking-trump-175213669/
    Mitchell Clionsky is a PhD, board-certified in clinical neuropsychology. Emily is an Internal Medicine doctor and psychiatrist as well as a diplomate in the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. They are both specialists in dementia and are co-authors of the book Dementia Prevention: Using Your Head to Save Your Brain.
    You will not want to miss what they have to share from their observations and analysis of Trump. 
    Emily presents our listeners with informal medical observations of Donald Trump to guide our future diagnostic questions and testing. Some of the insights she shares about his physical and mental well-being are shocking.
    Mitchell takes us on a unique, deep-dive into an evaluation of Trump’s deteriorating executive functions from the viewpoint of a hiring officer at a major corporation. “We evaluated him eight years ago,” Mitchell said. “And again four years ago because he was ousted by the Board of Directors representing the shareholders for this corporation.”
    This week, we’re also introducing a new feature called Bad News Good News, where we bring you the best and worst of the week’s media coverage of Trump and Biden’s cognitive health. “In addition to our mission of analyzing Trump, we have another mission - and that is to monitor how the mainstream press covers this issue,” John told us. “I think it's time to name and shame. And I think it's time to organize our voices and speak back, speak up. We've listened to enough of their b******t. I think it's time for them to hear from us.”
    Listen in as John and Harry dissect a major dishonest headline from the Washington Post this week regarding Biden’s mental health and call out the editors for refusing to issue a correction or retraction of the article. 
    Harry says, “Even if we laugh sometimes, we are judicious in trying to think about what we're hearing, and analyzing the language and how it becomes distorted, which we recognize is from patients we've worked with early onset dementia.”
    Tune in and be sure to let us know what you think about this fantastic episode in the comments.

    • 1 hr 13 min
    Top Psychologists SOUND ALARM: "NOT normal. It's Unprecedented.

    Top Psychologists SOUND ALARM: "NOT normal. It's Unprecedented.

    Join hosts Dr. John Gartner and Dr. Harry Segal for Shrinking Trump, a hit new weekly show dedicated to analyzing Donald Trump from a psychological point of view. As John puts it, “This is a place you'll be able to come and hear frank, honest, intelligent, educated discussions among professionals about Trump's mental health.”
    In this episode, our guest is psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Dr. Lance Dodes, a retired assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Lance was also one of the original contributors to the book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, a collection of essays from psychiatrists and psychologists describing Trump’s mental health as a clear and present danger to the nation and individual well-being.
    As a psychoanalyst, Dr. Dodes is focused primarily on the personality disorder component of Trump’s mental health. He explains to our listeners how dementia interacts with personality disorder, particularly when compounded with narcissism. As the dementia worsens, Dr. Dodes says, Trump “knows less and less because he can't add to knowledge or correct the things that he doesn't know, because that would be a narcissistic blow.”
    Lance also warns our listeners that some of the greatest character defects Trump exhibits, like the lack of empathy, are made exponentially more dangerous by his worsening dementia. “And then, of course, if there was ever a chance to correct it, he can't,” Dodes said. “Because that would mean acknowledging that he had done something wrong.”
    Why is Trump falling asleep in court? Will he actually attend the debates? What would a second term for Trump look like once he’s lost all impulse control? You won’t want to miss the team's psychological approach to answering these questions and more in this fantastic interview.
    You’ll also want to buckle up for another wild segment of “Dementia Roundup,” where John and Harry analyze video clips of Trump’s most bizarre statements and behaviors from the week. Their conclusions, although often terrifying, help listeners better understand the nature of Trump’s rapid mental decline and why he says, and acts, the way he does. 
    Harry said it best to close out the show. “To understand someone, It takes a while to build a model of who they are. So I'm hoping that over time with each of our podcasts, everyone will start to have a more complex and integrated sense of who Trump is and how this process of mild cognitive impairment is affecting him.”

    • 52 min
    Diagnosing Trump with Dr. Vince Greenwood

    Diagnosing Trump with Dr. Vince Greenwood

    Join hosts Dr. John Gartner and Dr. Harry Segal for Shrinking Trump, a brand new weekly show dedicated to analyzing Donald Trump from a psychological point of view. 
    On this premier episode, our guest is Dr. Vince Greenwood, founder of The Washington Center for Cognitive Therapy where he specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorder and depression. Dr Greenwood is also very active on Twitter @DutyToInform and is the founder of the website www.dutytoinform.org.
    Dr. Greenwood is an expert in psychological diagnosis and forensic assessment who developed a checklist for signs of dementia and aging. When he ran it against Donald Trump’s speeches from different stages in his life what the Doctor discovered, and revealed on our show, was shocking. 
    In this interview, Dr. Greenwood will share the results of his study, and outline the specific behaviors that led to his conclusions along with explaining his methodology. 
    And what’s worse: he has a warning about where this all will ultimately lead.
    Vince also breaks down the ongoing debate surrounding the “Goldwater Rule,” which pits the ethics of discussing a ‘diagnosis from a distance’ against the ethics of warning the public about an imminent threat to the American people.
    In this interview, John explains that he thought after Trump was defeated in 2020, that his mission was accomplished and the work was finished. “What brought me back into the public fold,” John said, “is that I saw the public was being gaslit. The media has pathologized Biden’s normal signs of aging while normalizing Trump’s blatant signs of dementia.”
    So John is back, along with Dr. Segal, to warn the public about what’s really going on with Trump’s mental health. 
    John told us, “I always say to people, look at Donald Trump right now because that's the best Donald Trump you're ever going to see. Because dementia is a deteriorating illness, and his rate of deterioration is accelerating.”
    Stay tuned for another awesome episode next week!

    • 1 hr 2 min

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5
44 Ratings

44 Ratings

REJ0013 ,

Learning something new

This was a very interesting episode and I look forward to more. The joviality was at times too much as it diminished the (dignity of) people being discussed and the seriousness of the topic, but I can chalk that up to nerves.

I really liked the image of Toto pulling back the curtain of the Strongman. Very well done.

I sincerely appreciate the efforts of informing people of the dementia observations. I had no clue. Disregarding what I recognize as dangerous statements and actions, I took it to be a joke. Where’s my popcorn while I watch this particular train wreck of a speech? I had no knowledge of these events as being signs of dementia and it educates me on a personal level (with aging friends and parents) as well as politically.

Thank you for covering the ethics of this duty to inform.

I am looking forward to more of these episodes.

Robin

hdjhrhdiciw ,

Get serious!

This is an important topic; present it as such! All the giggling makes you sound like vindictive children.

Fed-up in Fresno ,

Interesting content, terrible presentation

Two men giggling and talking over each other. (Do they laugh at their own patients too?) Sound levels veer wildly between each speaker. This is a terrible shame, as what they have to say is both interesting and important.

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