The American Psychiatric Association implemented a new ethics rule in 1973 as a result of some 12,000 psychiatrists denouncing Republican Candidate Barry Goldwater as crazy just from watching his speeches on TV.
APA’s formal response came in 1973 with the adoption of Section 7.3 in the Principles of Medical Ethics with Annotations Especially Applicable to Psychiatry, which became known as the Goldwater Rule.
The rule applies to public figures and states: “[I]t is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement.”
The episode and the subsequent adoption of Section 7.3 appear to have dampened the enthusiasm of most APA members for a repeat performance, leaving psychiatric diagnosis to the media.
The far Left wing media site Now This found some new psychiatrists who were happy to violate that ethics rule, not even from watching Trump, but reading about him third hand from the Muller report.
‘The president failed every criterion for rational and reality-based decision-making capacity.’ — Here’s what psychiatrists learned about Trump’s mental state from the Mueller report pic.twitter.com/8XlPDU3uz4
— NowThis Impact (@nowthisimpact) July 4, 2019
One of the most important lessons I learned from history is that no one is above moral corruption.
Josef Mengele was a prominent doctor, trained in the best medical schools in Germany.
Japanese Unit 731 was also staffed by some of the best doctors in Imperial Japan.
There is nothing about being a medical doctor that makes a person immune from engaging in the ugliest and most vicious behavior for entirely ideological reasons.
I would go so far as to say that such people – smart and highly educated – are more likely to rationalize their engaging in such behavior by saying that they are doing what they are doing for the benefit of others.
Clearly, that is what the people interviewed by Now This are doing. Throwing away ethics and responsible behavior because of their position and hatred of Trump, they think they are serving society. Really they are just engaging in TDS with the authority of a lab coat.
Every one of these people should have their license to practice revoked.
Anybody know what the censure mechanism is, e.g. who can file a complaint?
And, wasn’t there some other shrink who did this during Trump’s campaign? Anybody know what happened to him/her/it/xir/etc?
Yes, a dozen or so “doctors” pulled the same stunt around the election, before or after, I don’t remember. Did anything happen? Not that I have heard.
Apart from canceling these clowns’ licenses (assuming they have any) it would also make sense to charge them with a federal rap for violating the HIPAA patient privacy rules.