In United States and Canadian law, competence concerns the mental capacity of an individual to participate in legal proceedings or transactions, and the mental condition a person must have to be responsible for his or her decisions or acts. Competence is an attribute that is decision-specific.
Mental Competency Hearing
The mental competency hearing is much like any other court hearing, but with this hearing, court appointed mental health experts will be examined and cross examined based on their findings. Prior to the actual hearing, a Forensic Psychologist or Psychiatrist will evaluate the defendant. The defendant will be asked lots of questions during the assessment to determine his/her fitness to stand trial. If after the evaluation, the psychologist determines that defendant is not fit to stand trial, the judge, defense and prosecution will get a detailed report.
During the actual hearing, multiple mental health professionals will testify to the information and findings they've retrieved during the evaluation. If there is a jury (very rare), they will determine if the defendant is mentally fit or not. If there is no jury, the judge will make this determination.
The information that a psychologist gives during testimony is weighed very heavily. If the defendant is considered unfit to stand trial, the criminal trial will be temporarily halted until client is mentally capable of understanding what's going on. Defendant will be transferred to a psychiatric hospital where he will get the needed psychotropic medications, short-term therapy and/or group therapy to help restore him back to competency. Once he is restored to competency, the trial can resume.
Generally a competency hearing places the burden on your attorney to show that you are not competent to stand trial.
However, unlike a criminal trial, the competency hearing is a civil proceeding. This means that your attorney does not need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you are incompetent. (wonder if that works both ways)
A competency evaluation is a court-ordered mental health assessment to determine how much a defendant remembers and understands about his or her charges and alleged offense, as well as his or her capacity to understand court proceedings and assist a lawyer in their defense
The following steps are usually involved when making a determination of competency:
Visiting the doctor for a complete physical evaluation. ...
Gathering insight. ...
Utilizing psychological tests or assessments. ...
Evaluating current functioning and comparing it to prior functioning.
Requesting a complete mental evaluation.
http://jaapl.org/content/43/1/121
Trump rhetoric is ‘so similar’ to Jim Jones, says Jonestown massacre survivor. 'I say don't forget about the commander-in-chief who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people’, says Yulunda Williams.
https://www.radio.com/kmox/news/local/st-louis-attorney-compares-trump-to-cult-leader-jim-jones
https://www.fastcompany.com/90596328/its-time-to-start-treating-trump-like-a-fringe-cult-leader
https://www.newsweek.com/jamestown-trump-1548653
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-jim-jones-jonestown-massacre-suvivor-yulunda-williams-b1759192.html
Has Trumpism become a cult?
The question almost feels like a provocation. And yet more and more people, like veteran Republican strategist John Weaver, are comfortable saying, “Yes.”
Famed CBS anchor Dan Rather made the case most recently on the CNN show Reliable Sources. Even former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci has likened Donald Trump supporters to a cult.
It’s a provocative claim that I’m not sure is entirely convincing. On one hand, there is something cult-like about the hold Trump has over his supporters and the Republican Party. At the same time, calling it a cult seems too easy, a way of avoiding a much scarier truth about our politics — namely, that Trump isn’t all that exceptional.
A new book by cult expert Steven Hassan, called The Cult of Trump, is the first serious attempt to argue that Trumpism is a cult. Hassan has studied cults for years and is himself a former member of the “Moonies” cult, an offshoot of the Unification Church of the United States led by Sun Myung Moon that made headlines in 1970s.
Hassan is convinced that Trump is more than just a manipulative, charismatic politician. The president, he writes, “employs many of the same techniques as prominent cult leaders and displays many of the same personality traits.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/book-party/wp/2017/09/22/is-trump-mentally-ill-or-is-america-psychiatrists-weigh-in/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/finding-new-home/202101/diagnosing-trump-mental-illness
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dangerous_Case_of_Donald_Trump
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/finding-new-home/202101/diagnosing-trump-mental-illness
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/basics/president-donald-trump
https://theconversation.com/ca/topics/trump-mental-health-69061
https://www.statnews.com/2018/09/25/donald-trump-applied-psychoanalysis-diagnosis/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-shared-psychosis-of-donald-trump-and-his-loyalists/
https://medium.com/@shanesnow/donald-trump-and-the-definition-of-insanity-82ab6db008c4
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/11/20/trump-behavior-history-suggest-mood-personality-disorders-column/6332417002/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/11/23/trump-mentally-unfit-president-column/6382407002/
https://bookshop.org/books/the-cult-of-trump-a-leading-cult-expert-explains-how-the-president-uses-mind-control/9781982127336
https://ctmirror.org/category/ct-viewpoints/is-trump-leading-a-cult/
https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2020/12/10224969/donald-trump-maga-cult-followers-future
https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/US-must-not-underestimate-the-risks-of-the-Trump-cult
https://www.amazon.ca/Cult-Trump-Leading-Explains-President/dp/1982127333
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/01/can-trumps-cult-of-followers-be-deprogrammed
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/inside-the-cult-of-trump-his-rallies-are-church-and-he-is-the-gospel
https://www.simonandschuster.ca/books/The-Cult-of-Trump/Steven-Hassan/9781982127343
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Will-followers-walk-away-from-the-cult-of-Trump-15876686.php
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/13/20992370/trump-republican-party-cult-steven-hassan
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-embrace-the-cult-of-trump-ignoring-warning-signs/2018/06/13/a69d9a72-6f37-11e8-bd50-b80389a4e569_story.html
