Evaluating a politician's mental health from afar is the latest attempt by Democrats to delegitimize Donald Trump's presidency.
Yale psychiatrist Dr. Bandy Lee warns in Newsweek about the coming apocalypse and elimination of the human race. How? Trump of course.
President Donald Trump’s mental health might lead to the extinction of the human species, the Yale psychiatrist briefing lawmakers on the president's psychological state told Newsweek on Friday.
If it were possible, Dr. Bandy Lee said, "we would be declaring a public health emergency that needs to be responded to as quickly as possible.”
“As more time passes, we come closer to the greatest risk of danger, one that could even mean the extinction of the human species,” she said. “This is not hyperbole. This is the reality.”
In 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater was classified as mentally unfit after psychiatrists, who never actually conducted a real evaluation, diagnosed him as such. Here we 54 years later with the same situation. No evidence. No proof. Simply: based on psychiatrists' feelings.
The shame of the Goldwater days prompted the American Psychiatric Association to implement the Goldwater Rule, which bans diagnosing individuals before actually evaluating them in a doctor's office setting. The Association reaffirmed the rule last year.
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) today reaffirmed its support behind the ethics guideline commonly known as “The Goldwater Rule,” which asserts that member psychiatrists should not give professional opinions about the mental state of someone they have not personally evaluated.
The APA’s Ethics Committee issued an opinion that clarifies the ethical principle and answers questions that have been posed recently.
Since 1973, the American Psychiatric Association and its members have abided by a principle commonly known as “the Goldwater Rule.” The ethics principle is so named because of its association with an incident that took place during the 1964 presidential election. (See APA Blog on Goldwater Rule.) During that election, Fact magazine published a survey in which it queried some 12,356 psychiatrists on whether candidate Sen. Barry Goldwater, the GOP nominee, was psychologically fit to be president. A total of 2,417 of those queried responded, with 1,189 saying that Goldwater was unfit to assume the presidency. Goldwater would later sue the magazine, which was found liable for damages.
“It was unethical and irresponsible back in 1964 to offer professional opinions on people who were not properly evaluated and it is unethical and irresponsible today,” said APA President Maria A. Oquendo, M.D., Ph.D. “In the past year, we have received numerous inquiries from member psychiatrists, the press and the public about the Goldwater Rule. We decided to clarify the ethical underpinnings of the principle and answer some of the common questions raised by our members. APA continues to support these ethical principles.”
In reaffirming the existing policy, the Ethics Committee explained the rationale behind the rule. For example, offering a professional opinion or a diagnosis of someone they have not thoroughly examined compromises the integrity of the doctor and the profession and it has the potential to stigmatize those with mental illness. Furthermore, when a physician publicly gives a professional opinion on a public figure without consent, it violates the principle that a psychiatric evaluation must occur with consent or authorization.
Apparently Dr. Lee, and the hundreds of liberal psychiatrists following her lead with a signed letter, doesn't are much about ethics. After all, she's attacking a Republican she disagrees with politically and therefore, it's fair game.
But here's the thing, if they can do this to President Trump, they can do it to regular Americans too. To the left, being mentally unfit simply means they disagree with you. Quite a dangerous precedent.