We must have discussions about mental afflictions in order to reduce the stigma and to adopt a more enlightened approach to reducing suffering. The past four years of silence and suppression have vastly harmed the public’s mental health in unprecedented ways.

We must be honest about what has happened, even if it is painful to consider that one of the premier mental health associations was a chief perpetrator in harming health. This should not be a reason to abandon the field itself or the benefits of mental health knowledge....

... but to hold leaders accountable to the public and to professional standards. This is why, for several months, the World Mental Health Coalition has been planning a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”

What the American Psychiatric Association did to protect a mentally-impaired and dangerous leader, playing on public misconceptions about mental health, and what profits it gained since doing so, must come to light.

Millions of Americans were absorbed into a “personality cult,” while defenseless without access to proper expert warnings and education that might have helped countless many make more rational, informed choices than to sacrifice their security, health, livelihood, and even lives.

Healing necessarily includes accountability, and facing the truth. Foremost among the institutions that helped the rise of Donald Trump’s pathological reign was the APA, and I believe the more that is revealed, the more central and deciding early role it will have played.