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[Audio] Dr. Michael Bordieri on Public Diagnoses of Presidential Candidates

Tatiana Shepeleva, 123rf Stock Photo

 

 

 

 

On Sounds Good, MSU psychology professor Dr. Michael Bordieri and Tracy Ross discuss the Goldwater Rule, which largely prohibits mental health professionals from publicly diagnosing presidential candidates.

Bordieri says diagnoses are often used as explanations for why people behave the way they do.

But that’s really not their function. We don’t have diagnostic systems for popular culture entertainment, right. We have them to sort of offer people help,” Bordieri said.

Right now, Bordieri says you can find all types of diagnoses for both presidential candidates with a quick Google search. But he says psychiatrists are not supposed to diagnose public figures. He says mental health professionals can comment broadly on psychological issues but not on individual people.

Sure, folks who want to become leaders tend to have personality traits that make them driven that are associated with success and the need to achieve big things. And so it’s not unsurprising that we find candidates for the highest office in the United States who show some of those traits,” Bordieri said. “But the question then becomes, what about specific diagnoses?”

In the 1964 presidential election, Fact magazine published a survey where 1,198 psychiatrists of the 2,417 that responded said Republican nominee Sen. Barry Goldwater was unfit to be president, according to the American Psychiatric Association. Goldwater lost that election in a landslide. In response to backlash against the survey, Bordieri says the APA adopted the Goldwater Rule to prohibit psychiatrists from making public diagnoses.

Bordieri says while the Goldwater Rule may have been established with the intent of preventing influence on a popular election, it’s more about protecting the integrity of the profession.

When I assign a diagnosis… there’s a clear pattern of diagnosis and tests and other sorts of pieces of information that are gathered specifically to make that diagnosis. But then if we allow that to be, well, what I hear on the news, diagnosing solely based on Twitter, it can water down the integrity of the diagnostic process,” Bordieri said. “So I think that’s the primary function. Protecting that when as a professional I render a diagnosis, the public is ensured that that comes from solid information, that it’s done in the best accordance with scientific practice.”

Bordieri says there are psychiatrists pushing back against the Goldwater Rule because they say it unnecessarily constrains what mental health professionals can say about current candidates and current political issues. But Bordieri argues there is a danger in bringing diagnoses into political discussions because it can further stigmatize mental illness, making it seem as though people with psychological difficulties are unfit to lead.

That raises questions that I think are quite concerning. Because we know that many people with psychological difficulties are able to get effective treatment and able to live rich, meaningful lives and to be very effective at their jobs,” Bordieri said. “So taking the step that any diagnosis might mean someone couldn’t lead, isn’t qualified to serve, isn’t qualified to represent others, I think is pretty dangerous in its own right.”

Tracy started working for WKMS in 1994 while attending Murray State University. After receiving his Bachelors and Masters degrees from MSU he was hired as Operations/Web/Sports Director in 2000. Tracy hosted All Things Considered from 2004-2012 and has served as host/producer of several music shows including Cafe Jazz, and Jazz Horizons. In 2001, Tracy revived Beyond The Edge, a legacy alternative music program that had been on hiatus for several years. Tracy was named Program Director in 2011 and created the midday music and conversation program Sounds Good in 2012 which he hosts Monday-Thursday. Tracy lives in Murray with his wife, son and daughter.
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