Don’t speculate on others’ mental health from afar

In The Guardian, Nick Davis makes a clear and timely case for affirming The Goldwater Rule. The Rule, which binds members of the American Psychiatric Association, forbids giving an opinion on the mental state of someone you have not examined.

The US president’s behaviour has brought the rule back into the public eye, but Davis argues that we shouldn’t lose sight of the importance of the Rule, and how it protects us all from speculation about our mental health – speculation which is often flavoured by simple prejudice:

Read the article here: The Goldwater rule: why commenting on mental health from a distance is unhelpful 

2 thoughts on “Don’t speculate on others’ mental health from afar”

  1. When they say mental health, do they mean a clinically diagnosable condition? Or do they mean the spectrum and variance of personality? Because unless they mean “affluenza”, I don’t see how he’s any more apt to have a clinical disorder than simply being overly privileged……

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