Wednesday, August 23, 2017

That Boy Just Ain't Right


Our current President my be ineffective and incompetent in the role, but no one can say he is not entertaining. It seems like he truly loves attention, but continues to fail to understand that continuing to insult and antagonize the people he needs to help him to be effective and to accomplish anything constructive is not a strategy for success.
Many people have made comments questioning our President's mental health. I am sure some would like to give him a diagnosis to try to explain why he is the way he is. Unfortunately for the mental health professionals, the Goldwater Rule prohibits them from diagnosing someone without an examination. The rule came in the aftermath of the 1964 Presidential election, when mental health professionals labeled Barry Goldwater as mentally ill without ever having met him. Goldwater sued and won, and the Goldwater Rule was born.
While mental health professionals are ethically restricted from saying our President is mentally ill, anyone else is totally free to express that opinion, just as others can insist that he is perfectly sane and conducts himself just as the leader of the free world should. One of my friends, who is a psychologist, was asked what diagnosis he would give our President. Following the Goldwater Rule and observing the highest ethical standards of his professions, his response was, "He's just an asshole."
For those of you who support our President and think he is a fine human being, I respect your right to have such opinions. As for myself, I don't want to get into labels, and think it most polite to just say "That boy just ain't right."