The Goldwater Rule: Don’t Speculate on Others’ Mental Health

  The Goldwater Rule is an ethical statement that was issued in 1972 by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). It stipulates that the mental state of others shouldn’t be speculated on without proper evaluation. This mainly affects public figures, to whom it’s common to arbitrarily attribute various disorders or clinical problems without evidence. Indeed, this is a frequent phenomenon both in the public and private spheres. For example, it happened a few years ago when Donald Trump became president and speculation began about certain possible disorders he might’ve been suffering from. Furthermore, these speculative reports continued throughout his term of office….