The Goldwater rule has been turned into a silencing mechanism aimed at those who would speak out

Last month, the American Psychiatric Association reasserted its broad interpretation of the Goldwater rule, which states that psychiatrists should not diagnose public figures from a distance. We consider this act to be politically influenced in dangerous ways. It happened not because it was scientifically called for or because a group of psychiatrists were breaking established guidelines. It happened because psychiatrists were bringing to light a politically inconvenient truth.

The group of mental health professionals (which includes us) was not breaking the Goldwater rule as it was written and as the APA had interpreted it prior to Donald Trump’s election. We were merely fulfilling our obligation to the public by calling attention to a dangerous situation that happened to involve the political sphere.

This followed an unprecedented expansion of the Goldwater rule last March to include not just diagnosing but making any comment on any observable aspect of a public figure’s expressed emotion, speech or behavior, even in an emergency. The expansion ran so afoul of the ethical principle the rule fell under (that we contribute to public health) and the very principles of medical ethics (that human health and safety come first), that members resigned in droves, and the APA has been flooded with protest letters for modifying a rule without consulting its membership.