Joseph Smith Jr. | Founder of Latter Day Saints | Mental Health & Personality 

Next time someone calls me with some drama, I’m going to say “let’s look at what could be happening in a situation like this.”

As an ex Mormon there whole faith is based on one boys account of seeing god I mean I lived in a mental hospital for 4 years I saw a shit ton of Joseph smiths there.

When my grandchildren come to me with a problem, I will say “Well, now, let’s see what could be going on in a situation like this”.........😂

I told my husband that an angel showed me plates that said he should buy me an Hermes bag, a lipizzaner dressage horse, do all the housework forever, etc. My husband should just take my word for it because that angel also said I couldn't show my husband the plates.

I was born into mormonism and it was a large part of my identity. it was everything i had planned on in life and influenced my ever decision. It is so incredibly difficult to sever yourself from the LDS church in ways many people wouldn't understand without living the experience. as someone who recently escaped that abuse that i was born into, hearing you explain it with rational thoughts about the beginnings i am reminded how fully i was indoctrinated to truly believe this and "know" it was true for so so long. As someone who is currently being ostracized and demonized by my still very believing family, i have feelings of releif and so much pain. For those who are still in the church, i wish peace on you and hope that you see through clear eyes one day. and for those who know the pain of having such a profound part of your identity shatter when you realize the reality of the mormon church, i'm sorry and i get it now.

It just dawned on me that Dr. Grande has an NPR voice. He tells us all the awful things going on in the world, but with a soothing, reassuring voice that makes you want to take a warm nap while you listen.

I love the variety of your subjects. So interesting. Thanks for sharing your professional and scientific insights.

There’s a few little in accuracies here, but the biggest is that Joseph died on-site, not months later. After falling from the window at Carthage, he was shot multiple times.

Dr Grande’s dry sarcasm about JS is just 👌👌 for an ex member

Who here has seen that South Park episode?

Dr. Grande, I'm so glad i found you! You're insight and humor is truly appreciated

That "seerstone" really would've come in handy to find that missing manuscript!

“How am I gonna make up all that stuff again?” 😂🤣

THEN: "No one would be a Mormon, that's crazy." NOW: "No one would be a Scientologist, that's crazy."

He didn't die a couple of months later, he died upon impact

I was a member of this church for 25 years. I spent the last 3 years researching Joseph Smith, following my hunch there was something rotten there. What I concluded after 3 years of research on only facts, no propaganda either way, was he was a psychopath. He enjoyed power. He loved to test his followers, see how loyal to him they would be .. would they be so loyal as to donate their wives, their daughters, their lives to him. He wanted it all. Wanted full loyalty from the members .. restrict what you eat, you wear, you drink, no smoking .. consecrate everything you own including your lives if necessary. Power and loyalty to the death was what Smith sought. I saw this video .. it scratches the very surface of what went on, but the conclusion is accurate. Smith was a lying, teen molesting, adulterous, thieving psychopathic con-artist narcissist.

A brief pronunciation note: The second M in Mormon is actually silent.

"Sounds like the relationship with that Angel was growing a bit tense" the humor never fails

I always enjoy your thoughts and opinions. I do learn from each case you present

I remember when I was younger. 2 Mormon missionaries one was American the other Canadian and they called on my friends dad, the Mormon religion is a big supporter of war in times of war and teach they have to kill when called upon. So my friends dad asked one of them if both countries went to war with each other would you kill your friend here. He replied yes, and the look on his young friends face was of absolute shock. My friends dad simply said because you are ok with killing your neighbor is the reason why I know your a false religion. Tremendously good reasoning I must say.

Why do I get the feeling Dr. G doesn’t believe Joe Smith’s shenanigans? 🤔 😂🤣😆

An Angel threatened him to marry more wives? Sounds like he couldn’t control his lust.

Here's the biggest thing that I learned while digging into Mormonism: there's a language barrier. They largely use the same terminology as Christians, but they affix very different meanings to those words.

The Man in Plaid There once was a sleuth, so keen, In crime scenes, he'd always be seen, With data he'd pore, And evidence adore, His analysis, truly pristine. From fingerprints to trails he'd chase, With logic, he'd quicken the pace, In the dimmest of light, He'd solve crime through the night, With a flair and an impeccable grace. In his wardrobe, a secret he'd hide, A penchant for plaid, he'd confide, In suits of all shades, In clandestine escapades, For plaid, he'd proudly decide!

The connections btwn mental health disorders and “religion “ has always fascinated me.

Former Mormon, forever Dr Grande fan -- it's always weird to see different spheres of my life collide! Great and notably fair treatment of the material, as usual.

"An angel made me do it defense" not to be confused with the "blame the chihuahua" defense you mentioned in another video....LOLOL

I love the fact the Angel that appeared before Joseph Smith had the name "Moron, I"

I am always a bit wary when only one person can translate the Golden Plates I’ve found.

Ah, so this is what happened to Rogan's old studio

You’re sooo good at what you do on this site. Thank you, Dr. Grande. I’m sure you help a lot of people.

Fascinating. I know a couple of people from that church. They are actually sincere in their belief and certainly did not try to win me over. And I still like the early Osmond Brothers songs....

I've studied a great deal about the Mormons. I didn't think that you could do this one in 15 minutes, but you did an amazing job. You are supremely humorous. Fun story, a metallurgist estimated that the weight of the plates (gold) based on the dimensions given was a bit over 200 lbs. Smith claimed he ran several miles to his home with the plates tucked under one arm like a loaf of bread. LOL

Please cover gaslighting in general and gaslighting vs gaslighting. Can two be doing that to each other. And if it’s an indication of Narcissism, histrionics, etc

I had an art history teacher that had your dry wit...but x10. He would drone on in a monotone voice in a dark room showing us slides from world Art and tho half the class would fall asleep-I’d be over there cracking up...

This subject remains fascinating to me! I grew up in upstate NY, and until this day - Yep! - right up until 2022! - Joseph Smith is still spoken about as an incredible conman by many people. It is interesting to me that this criticism of Joseph Smith is not confined to those of any particular faith, or non-faith. Many of us in that part of the country trace our ancestry to the Mayflower passengers. It seems that some sort of "ancestral memory" is still ticked off at old Joseph for conning many people out of money or property while in the process of developing his religion, as well as for spiritual "sheep stealing", meaning luring people away from their former religion. Personally, I give the guy props! That whole requirement of having multiple wives thing is one heck of a draw! I imagine that many of my ancestors thought more than once about signing up!

First you get the Money, then you get the Power, then you get the Women.

Thanks for sharing this! As a former member of the LDS church, I was taught a very positive view of Joseph Smith. We were told that researching anything other than our scriptures was “anti Mormon propaganda”. Once I found out the truth about Joseph smith and the religion, I felt like I had been conned and I left.

I read a book about his life in high school - 50 years ago. At the time, I couldn’t understand how anyone would have ever followed him. He sounded like a shyster to me. In college, I attended a social event where I was warned ahead of time there would be Mormans, and to beware of their tactics. Sure enough, two nice looking young people managed to get me alone, and started asking questions about my beliefs. It started out friendly, but then they got pushy. Luckily, one of the adults from my group came looking for me and said it was time to go. Some of my friends were also having the same experience elsewhere in the same building. It generated good discussions afterward.

Yes, it was very convenient that the "angel" told him not to show the plates to anyone. I bet he never thought the Book of Mormon would become a musical.

"I wasn't around in the mid-1840's but sometimes I do feel that old" Dr. Grande pivots into self deprecating humour and continues to deliver comedy gold!!

This is the best analysis I've heard someone give in a succinct way about Joseph Smith. Being born in the church, and having to climb through a labyrinth of minefields set up by the church in my mind in order to escape it, I liken it to Stockholm Syndrome. Logic and critical thinking were my only way out, and tho the story of Joseph Smith is much more complex than told here, the most important point is your analysis of who he was. After much study in great detail, I'd say YOU NAILED IT. He was a narcissistic psychopath. Thank you for that validation. An interesting sidenote, his son was institutionalized with schizophrenia. The men who were 'witnesses' and those who would succeed Joseph as leader, remained part of the inner group of about 3 families. Or people who spent decades subservient to those original families. The church has been involved in many deceptive practices over the years, including Smith claiming to translate the Book of Abraham, from Egyptian papyri. His big mistake there, for his future prophets, was that he left the originals because nobody could translate Egyptian at that time. Once the Rosetta Stone was found, and later the original papyri were found, the church has had to explain why Joseph's translation 'didn't get one word right' according to experts, once it could be translated. The church explained this away as being that 'it was a spiritual translation instead of a literal one,' tho up until that time it had always been described as literal, even by Joseph. A lot of intelligent people left the church at that time, including an Egyptologist who had helped them translate the found papyri, and realized the whole translation had been a hoax. The rest unravels pretty quickly from there if you have a brain.

I grew up in this religion. I've questioned narcissism & psychopathy in JS Jr for a while. Comparing him with Brigham Young though gets rather terrifying. The religion has been whitewashing its history for years.

I would love to see a video on Joseph 'Judge' Rutherford who established the organisation Jehovah's Witnesses upon the death of C.T.Russell. He managed to convince people that Moses was coming back from the dead and would need a house in Florida where it was warm. He was a drunk and a bully but managed to get a large following and establish a sect/cult/high control religion.

I grew up Mormon I always wondered of this mans mental state Thank you for this

"Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool" - Mark Twain.

Having done extensive study in the history of the LDS Church and of Joseph Smith, Jr., I tend to agree with the last analysis, that Smith was a manipulator. Though shrewd, he wasn’t always careful enough to conceal his exploits. The Book of Mormon contains plagiarisms from works available to Smith and some of his “scribes.” Furthermore the book is highly anachronistic, being indicative of someone who is not well taught in world history. The use of the “Reformed Egyptian” as an alleged medium on the hidden record kept curious intellectuals away from Smith and his church. Egyptology was in its infancy at the time, a fact which seriously cripples Joseph Smith’s and Martin Harris’s version of the latter’s meeting with Charles Anthon. The weirdness didn’t stop with Smith’s assassination. In the time between that and Utah’s statehood, LDS leaders were frightening settlers and others with talk of beheading “gentiles” (i.e. non-Mormons). The insanity and egregiousness didn’t end with the LDS founder/prophet, and a steady stream of incredulous followers helped him pull it off.

This is so humourous. And I love the straight face! How do you do it?!

South Park actually did an amazing version of the founding of the Mormon church on their show...Meanwhile, my own husband just shakes his head in disbelief and says "Why would anyone want more than one wife?!!" Lol

Day two of asking Dr. Grande to use the acronym OCEAN again when talking about personality traits.

This is so sound , love the analysis . The church lives on to this time and I really enjoy their genealogy site they offer , it’s free to join , unlike all the other companies .

Joseph Smith had a severe case of Typhoid Fever as a child, which caused a doctor to want to amputate his leg. In rare cases Typhoid can cause brain damage.

(Ex-Mo here) I LOVE when non-mormons (non-LDS, whatever) explain mormonism. It's fantastic. Mormons make the story sound SO spiritual, special, omit the "unnecessary" details, and are so serious about these stories it feels powerful. Then you read the CES letter/watch videos like this, and you remember that you were raised in lies.

The LDS church is the 19th century version of and template for Scientology. Both require a level of credulity and gullibility on the part of believers that makes belief in older traditional religions appear positively reasonable. The absurdity of the ancient religions benefits from their antiquity and their connections to even more ancient beliefs and traditions, while the modern "religions" which have emerged in modern times clash more obviously with modern understanding of science, psychology, and history. The fact that the LDS Church and Scientology have managed to recruit thousands of believers in the modern age is an indictment of the deeply imbedded credulity of human beings.

A couple corrections: Moroni is pronounced Moroneye. Joseph died on the same day from gunshot wounds and fell out of the jail window. These little things are important because Mormons who might be swayed by videos like these, will often think that this information (that is not taught to most members) is not true when you get the simple/obvious things wrong. Good video. You're dead on in your assessment.

My sister is LDS and I don't think she knows anything about the church except that she finds them very friendly. She is 70 and I don't think I'll pop her balloon. I'm younger at 65 and have studied religion most of my life. I just want her happy

I as an ex-Mormon, I really enjoyed this. I’ve seen loads of videos about the reality, but this was better, frank, scientific and factual. Thank you.

I went to a Mormon church as an 8 year old, even at that age I suspected that I was being conned.

Interesting analysis. I hope you do one on Brigham Young who was himself an outstandingly powerful and controlling figure.

Whenever I have a. personal problem to solve, I always ask, "What would Joseph Smith Jr. do?" Then I go ahead and do whatever I wanted to do in the first place. This works about half the time, but I figure it's as good as any other system. It's the magic underwear that gets me.

When I see plaques for decor that say "Believe" in harmless, scrolling fonts, I want to write "Don't" in sharpie above it.

My first time seeing Dr. Grande’s hands. Got to say, I’m not disappointed

Wilford Woodruff, born 1807, was a follower of Joseph Smith, witness to the events in Nauvoo, and one of the earliest presidents of the LDS. What's pretty remarkable, purely from my perspective as a history buff, is that his voice was recorded in 1897 so we can actually listen to an eye witness. Granted he was pretty elderly, and Victorian technology was fairly crude, so he probably doesn't sound his best. Now I'm not a Mormon btw, and nor do harbor any ill will towards them; I just find the past interesting so being able to listen to people from the 1800s is thrilling to me.

I always find it strange that though it is extremely common for individuals to have multiple comorbid diagnoses (in my experience as a masters level clinical psychology trained person), these cases are always discussed in terms of one overriding diagnostic cause of behavior. For instance, isn't it possible that people like Joseph Smith and Charles Manson are both psychopathic and carry an Axis I thought or mood disorder, accounting for hallucinations/delusions? And if that's the case, wouldn't it be difficult to determine which is more causally related to antisocial behaviors?

It utterly baffles me that so many will follow people like Joseph Smith, L. Ron Hubbard, Marshall Applewhite, Jim Jones, etc. Some people are just so desperate to believe and cling on to anything to give them meaning and a purpose. We see that today with a certain political figure as well.

A tenth grade psychology assignment was to pick a famous person from history and do a psychological breakdown of that person. I chose Joseph Smith and came up with similar results as this video. It was a half year class consisting of two quarters. After I turned in that assignment during the first quarter I got an F for that quarter. As you may have figured out my teacher was Mormon however I got an A the following quarter so at least I didn't fail the class at a loss of credit.

LOVE U DR GRANDE!! U have really grown ur channel also ur name makes me want nachos.....😆👍

Being interested in criminal psychology, I cannot help but notice that there have been what seems an inordinate number of high-profile murder cases/suspects involving followers of this sect. Daybell/Vallow being the more recent.

"Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool" - Mark Twain

Thank you Dr. Grande. I went to the U of Utah for a year ( I’m not Mormon) and found it to be the most exclusionary group of people I’ve ever met. You are brave for doing this video.🥰❤️🥰❤️🥰💕💕💕

Great thanks 😊, please do a video about the founder of Jehovah witnesses organization.

Great analysis, but it only confirms what non-mormons know about Joseph Smith. LDS believers will just reject everything, true or not, that could compromise their faith in their prophet

I grew up in an LDS family/community in Utah. Never once have I bought into this bullshit. Very nice people, though. I love them

Another intriguing person is Ellen G. White. Around the time of Joseph Smith, the Seventh Day Adventist church was established

I always enjoy your insightful and objective presentations on a wide variety of topics.

Pure Grande gold.

'If anyone believed they needed to hire Smith to find anything, their brain is the first thing that needed to be found.' LOL!

South Park taught me all I needed to know about Joseph Smith

The hilarious bit is that someone really did pass thru their town with Egyptian text. I mean that’s a great find on their part. But we know this book now. It’s the book of the dead. Proving he had no idea what he was doing.

Didn't expect for Dr. Grande to dish it out so unapologetically .

He sounds like an 19th century L. Ron Hubbard...

When Dr. Grande said: "I wasn't there in the mid-1800's although I sometimes feel that old." I laughed so hard that my diet Pepsi came out my nose and all over my computer screen!

South Park Joseph Smith story episode is perhaps the best way to explain Joseph Smith. Now gather around and sing with me: 🎶🎶 Joseph Smith was called a prophet (Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb) 🎶He found the stones and golden plates (Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb) Even though nobody else ever saw them (Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb)

I’ve read many comments from former Mormons. I think the members of each church make a huge difference on people’s experiences. My sister has been a member for almost 50 years. Her church still embraces those family members that have quit going. Her church has always been very kind, loving and accepting of family who are non members like me and our parents.

There are many “cult” leaders masquerading as religious. I would add Scientology to your list. I had an experience when my family had moved and we decided to try out a new church. It appeared to be a small Christian church. It was small, the pastor was nice. Everyone welcomed us. On the second visit the pastor approached us as we were leaving and asked us if we would like to come to the Tuesday service. We asked, what is a Tuesday Service? The pastor said that he invited only the people he believed were actually saved to come for communion. He went on to try and convince us that he was responsible to God to make sure that no fakers were present. So only special people got invited. 😳 it was creepy, but immediately I felt like I was being recruited into a cult. But you can see how some people would have bought into this! If you had shown up for the Tuesday Service.....he had you!

This is such a pleasant surprise! I can almost feel a warmth in my cold, apostate heart. Thanks, Dr. Grande ❤️

Leaving the church... Was best thing ever.. Brigham is my great great grandfather they tried using this at me... No I lefted I'm glad... To leave the occult.. praise God I did

Interesting discussion! I have been curious about the alleged " L.D.S. Magic Underwear. Where does this fit in with religious beliefs? What about so-called "Spirit Wives"?

“Their own brain should be on the list of things that needs to be found.” 😂😂😂

You killed me with, "The relationship with the angel must have become tense . . . "

I appreciate that Dr. Grande acknowledges that he wasn't there and thus it could be true. That alone is more honest a statement than you hear from most.

Your setup looks so much better now 😃

Thank you so much, Dr. Grande! I've followed your channels for a while now, and I'm a surviver of narcissistic abuse, by several people, and by this coercive organization. This abuse pattern had always been intertwined with the LDS religion. I finally broke free in my 30s, and I can see hope and feel peace in my life, and best of all, now I understand most of the red flags... And avoid them.

Dr. Grande scores again with a brilliant act of religious skepticism. We can stay friends with individual Mormons, but we should tip our hats to someone who speaks truth to power.

Thanks again for sharing. Your clarity is greatly appreciated!

Very interesting breakdown of what I often contemplated while in the LDS Church for twenty years. Have you read “Rough Stone Rolling” ? …And it’s Moroni (pronounced morone-eye). A charismatic grandiose man no doubt about that. Interesting to read about his childhood and contemplate the spiritual awakening time he was raised in. His father was into magic, seers, witching, I think this all played a part in how he wove together many different spiritual and religious threads we find within the LDS beliefs.

😂😂 Dr. Grande coming for everyone! I'm so glad you're comfortable enough to show your humor! We're here for it! 🥰

"An angel made me do it" testimony straight from Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell

Would you please comment on Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science Church? (not scientology)

Great analysis, Dr. Grande. If you’re interested in learning about Joseph Smith Jr.’s life from another perspective I recommend listening to Dr. Truman Madsen’s “Joseph Smith Lectures” series.