There’s something inherently funny about a so-called explainer website that gets so much wrong.
But such is the nature of Vox, which is constantly falling down on the job.
The website’s latest fumble involves an attempt to insinuate that President Trump is a crazy person. In doing so, some Vox staffers revealed they’re ignorant as to the purpose and meaning of the American Psychiatric Association’s “Goldwater Rule,” which states that it is both unethical and extremely irresponsible for mental health experts to render professional verdicts on subjects based only on casual observation.
This is what Vox tweeted Wednesday: “The Goldwater Rule suggests that it’s unethical for mental health professionals to assess the mental state of a sitting president. But Trump has made questions about his mental fitness unavoidable.”
Except, that’s not what the rule states.
The backstory to this guideline is pretty specific, and it has been covered here before. The short of it is this: A 1964 survey of psychiatrists found that half of its respondents believed GOP presidential candidate Barry Goldwater was mentally unfit to be president. They called him a “dangerous lunatic,” “paranoid,” a “counterfeit figure of a masculine man,” and so on.
Goldwater went on to lose the election, but he won his defamation lawsuit against the now-defunct Fact magazine, which published the psychiatrist survey. The American Psychiatric Association’s president called the entire incident a “very public ethical misstep,” and the group moved to institute a code, known as the Goldwater Rule, saying that psychiatrists are to refrain from offering long-distance diagnoses.
This is a good rule that guards against a lot of bad.
The erroneous Vox tweet included an explainer video that doesn’t completely bungle the rule’s definition, so there’s at least that. However, the video also gets over its skis by suggesting the experts who’ve offered long-distance evaluations of Trump’s mental health are probably, definitely onto something. Worst of all, the video leans heavily on Yale University psychiatry professor Dr. Bandy X. Lee, whose role in kicking up this irresponsible narrative alleging Trump is mentally unstable earned her a none-too-subtle rebuke from the APA.
“We at the APA call for an end to psychiatrists providing professional opinions in the media about public figures whom they have not examined, whether it be on cable news appearances, books, or in social media,” the group said in a statement.
It added, “Arm-chair psychiatry or the use of psychiatry as a political tool is the misuse of psychiatry and is unacceptable and unethical.”
The scolding came after Lee appeared on Capitol Hill last year to tell lawmakers that, “[Trump’s] going to unravel, and we are seeing the signs.”
Remember: She has never conducted an in-person evaluation of the president. She has never even met with him. She has, however, watched a lot of cable and read several news stories. Lee, naturally, maintains that her armchair diagnosis of Trump isn’t, in fact, an armchair diagnosis. But it definitely is, and the APA itself is embarrassed by the entire ordeal.
The group even expanded its Goldwater Rule definition to include exactly the sort of nonsense that Lee has been peddling.
Other than this, and misidentifying what the Goldwater Rule does, some solid work all around by Vox.
