@Cyber LibertyYou said: "To say the "Goldwater Rule" only applies to one branch of the Psychological arts (leaving all the others free to smear people) is a specious dodge."
I was giving the history of the Goldwater Rule. In the beginning, it was only Psychiatrists who adopted the rule. Years later, other mental health workers adopted it in their organization rules. It is not a law - only a rule. And, there has always been the exception to alert the public and law enforcement if there is a danger.
Case in point:
I psychologically evaluated a patient who I thought was still in the mental hospital. He was not, had just been released but the psychiatrist wanted a mental evaluation, which I did. When I finished the evaluation, I knew the patient was going to kill someone soon, likely his mother. I told the psychiatrist that as soon as the patient left my office. That is when I was told the patient was no longer in the mental hospital. I told the psychiatrist, law enforcement should be told this as well as his mother should be told.
The next day the patient was holed up in his house with weapons, threatening the life of his mother. Law enforcement surrounded the house. The psychiatrist was able to help the officers by telling them the psychological tests indicated he was dangerous with killing on his mind, and
what he might do. The mother was able to get out of the house while the son was looking out windows to see law enforcement. Eventually, law enforcement was able to get him out of the house without shots being fired.
"what he might do": The Rorschach test (ink blot), is useless if a patient is normal, except it does tell you the person is likely normal. It is a boring test for normal people.
It is extremely helpful if the patient has a mental disorder. In such a case, when the patient sees an inkblot card, sometimes even the first one, patient goes into his/her own world - he/she is not with you anymore - he/she has retreated in his/her mind and see something they deem to be
real in the card. Sometimes it doesn't happen until the first card with red ink is presented. In almost every patient who has a mental disorder, he/she will see the red ink as
real blood. He/she may jump back from the card as it is real blood to him/her.
In the case of the patient I described, he saw real killing in every card with red ink. In his mind, he was really killing people in those cards and said so, that he had to kill them.
Another test, Thematic Apperception Test, or TAT, is a series of pictures (If you put the name of the test in "Search", you will see some of the pictures). The patient is asked to make up a story with the people/objects on each card. A person with a mental disorder will invariably have intense stories that reflect what he/she is concerned about. The patient I described, killed every person in every picture - in his mind, he had to do it.
