Disclaimer: I personally think that shrinks are a waste of time and money….a good bartender is more accurate and profound than any shrink I have ever met. I am sure that they may have helped someone out there but in my situation they were useless…if not worse.
With that said there is a news piece swirling around the net about our fearless leader, DJ Trump…..and his mental status.
The story is about the “Goldwater Rule”……(how many of you went…HUH?)
The Goldwater rule is the informal name given to Section 7 in the American Psychiatric Association‘s (APA) Principles of Medical Ethics, which states it is unethical for psychiatrists to give a professional opinion about public figures they have not examined in person, and from whom they have not obtained consent to discuss their mental health in public statements.
Now that you are caught up on the “rule” let us continue……
A psychiatric group has told its members they’re not obligated to adhere to something called the “Goldwater Rule,” which has long prevented members of the profession from commenting on the mental health of public figures. The American Psychoanalytic Association emailed its members this month to that effect, though the Atlantic explains it wasn’t so much a change in policy as a reminder that the Goldwater Rule is not officially part of the group’s ethical guidelines. One thing of note: This APA has 3,500 members, but the larger American Psychiatric Association, with 37,000 members, still has the rule in place. The development comes amid lots of chatter about President Trump’s behavior, which is “so different from anything we’ve seen before” in a president, a past leader of the smaller APA tells STAT. Coverage:
- Milestone? The move “represents the first significant crack in the profession’s decades-old united front aimed at preventing experts from discussing the psychiatric aspects of politicians’ behavior,” writes Sharon Begley at STAT. In a statement, however, a spokesperson emphasized that the group isn’t encouraging members to go against the Goldwater Rule, notes Time. It’s just that “we don’t want to prevent our members from using their knowledge responsibly,” adds the former leader.
- Still opposed: The American Psychiatric Association reiterated that its own policy is unchanged. In March, the group formally reaffirmed its view that it’s unethical for doctors to speculate on the mental health of a person they haven’t personally evaluated. The full policy is here.
- ‘Gag rule’?: Last week, Dr. Leonard Glass of Harvard wrote an essay in Psychiatric Times likening the Goldwater prohibition to a “gag rule” and calling it “an unacceptable infringement on my right and duty.” In the essay, he resigned from the American Psychiatric Association.
- Why Goldwater: In 1964, about 1,200 psychiatrists responding to a magazine survey declared conservative candidate Barry Goldwater unfit for the presidency, explains the Los Angeles Times. He later sued for libel and won, and the larger APA’s ethics board established the rule in 1973.
An expert weighs in: You don’t have to search the topic long before finding someone arguing that Trump has narcissistic personality disorder. Well, the psychiatrist who literally wrote the definition for that disorder wrote a much-publicized letter to the editor earlier this year to the New York Times in which he states clearly that Trump doesn’t meet the criteria. “He may be a world-class narcissist,” writes Allen Frances, “but this doesn’t make him mentally ill, because he does not suffer from the distress and impairment required to diagnose mental disorder.”
Now if you have made it this far…..
If you are a regular reader then you already know that I am by no stretch of the imagination a Trump supporter…..so this conclusion may be a bit of a surprise………
I agree with the “Goldwater Rule”…..there should be NO analysis of the person without a professional visit and then the privacy of the person should be protected.
So these reports are nothing more than a MSM reach for readers…..serves little purpose of good…..it only feeds the innuendos…..
With that said……I do feel that he is NOT a person that should ever have been elected….he is suppose to represent the people of this country and he fails miserably on that front. I dislike the way he mocks people that is not what a good leader does…..he cannot remember that his stay in DC is about the country not his personal agenda…..I personally feel that he does have some sort of disorder that needs immediate treatment.
Move America forward or go the Hell away!
In Saner Thought 
I don’t know about shrinks, never used one. I can see why litigation forced in the Goldwater rule, but they were right. He wasn’t fit to be president, out of just plain nastiness. I don’t happen to think Trump is crazy at all. I think he is the opposite, an astute man who knew exactly how to get to where he is, but then doesn’t know what to do with that much power and responsibility.
The best chance you have of getting rid of him, is if he just decides he is tired of being the President, and wants to do something else instead. He has ticked a box on his bucket list, and may well realise he didn’t actually like getting what he wished for.
Best wishes, Pete.
I have said that he will resign instead of losing a court battle……I am sure there is something else he would rather be doing….chuq
Well, why I am not a shrink by any means I do tend to form opinion and evaluate some aspects of life using some of the stuff I acquired in academia in the behavioral sciences. Those of you wishing to do so might find value reading this oft-missed menu highlight page….
http://www.findingpoliticalsanity.com/why-i-dislike-this-guy-as-my-president-2/
But the Goldwater Rule likely has some basis in libel law, although I am sure it’s an effort more for professional conduct. The thing is.. a truly professional psychiatrist who knows his stuff can do pretty well evaluating someone just from watching TV…. he doesn’t need a person on the couch. In fact…. here’s the greater point. the evaluation process covers three things… the behavior, the origins of that behavior, and treatment of the behavior to promote a quality of life with the patient. I sized Trump up way back when he first became a candidate. Now, detractors might suggest that someone like Trump is just putting on a facade.. a show… and is nothing like that in real life… and you never really know until you get him on the proverbial couch. Ok.. maybe… but that’s rare and very few people are that good in shifting personas… unless you are schizoid… which then bring us full circle. 🙂
While I may agree with everything you wrote…I still think that a pro should keep all that to himself unless the person in question says they may divulge…I have this privacy thing…..I do not disagree with you…I think Trump has serious problem but then most of us have one in some way right? chuq
Well.. an interesting dilemma you suggest, chuq. As humans any one of us calls up our own system for initially evaluating someone.. it’s the old survival threat evaluation, friend or foe. We call upon our own instincts and life experiences with people in order to judge other people as being a threat or not. But if we are somehow trained as a professional to do the same thing, we have to keep our mouth shut, even if the person being judged is not a patient of said professional.
So, chuq, if we meet and we evaluate each other internally, we are not obligated to keep our evaluation private should the wife ask later in the day, “So, what’s Doug like?”. But.. if you were a professional psyche person you’d not be permitted to answer that question directly, even if I was not your client.
Anyway, chuq.. I know from where you are coming from in reality and it’s not a matter of our disagreeing. I am speaking only in regards of the Goldwater Rule having broader ramifications.
I make judgments all the time…but I keep them to myself and act on them accordingly….I would basically say that one must make up one;s mind for themselves..do not depend on my judgment they work for me and look how screwed up I am…LOL chuq
Don’t sell yourself short there, chuq. I would take you as president any day rather than the guy who is currently residing in the White House.
On the other hand.. one would have to be nuts to actually want that job. 🙂
Thanx but I would be a terrible prez…I would fire the Congress and slash the defense budget….I have more ghosts in my closet than a Xmas Carol….LOL chuq
So, besides that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? 🙂
About as much as Mrs. Kennedy like the parade….chuq
Having spent over 17 years working with psychiatrists, and mentally ill people, as well as private study of the field, as a psychiatric therapist, I think I know a bit about the subject. However, I’ll refrain from offering any of my own conclusions to merely point out two issues not mentioned… or, only in passing.
First, what privacy can a President realisitically expect? By entering the field for consideration as a candidate, a private citizen gives up any expectation of privacy, and, in my opinion, rightly so. If you can’t stand the heat, stay the fuck out of the kitchen; if you want privacy, don’t go into politics. Period.
Second, I am of the firm opinion that EVERY candidate for a town, county, city, state, or national elected office should be REQUIRED to undergo a thorough psychiatric examination, a full diagnostic procedure. Only in this way can there be ANY expectations of having our leaders known to be sane…. It is a clear sign, I know, that anyone with a flexible concept of truth is NOT fully sane; any truly sane human knows lying is wrong. Furthermore, anyone who desires power and control of others is not fully sane, either. Both of those indicators are existent in damn near every fucking elected official in this country….
It is further my opinion that all police, fire fighters, ambulance drivers, doctors, or any other human endeavor where responsibility for others in society is DUTY, should also require full psychiatric workup before being allowed to assume their duties….
Maybe, with some actual foresight, we might end up with saner leadership. The way it is now, it merely attracts the worst examples of this kind of asshole.
gigoid, the dubious
I agree that all those need a see a shrink for eval before they are allowed to “serve” the public…..an off the cuff diagnosis is self serving for the most part…..a/holes are what we do best…..LOL chuq
Damn typos…. ‘realistically’
Blame the keyboard…I always do…LOL chuq
I would, but, it just got replaced, & all the letters are now visible…. SIGH…. Too lazy to proof, that’s the problem….
*grin*
I always say that it cannot spell worth a crap….LOL