Evolution of the “Goldwater Rule”: Professionalism, Politics, and Paranoia: Diagnosing from a Distance: Debates over Libel Law, Media, and Psychiatric Ethics from Barry Goldwater to Donald Trump. By John Martin-Joy. New York:  Cambridge University Press, 2020,  xiv + 336 pp., $69.99 hardcover, $25.99 paperback. The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: Updated Edition. Edited by Bandy X. Lee. New York:  St. Martin's Press, 2017,  xx + 361 pp., $27.99 hardcover. Twilight of American Sanity: A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump. By Allen Frances. New York:  William Morrow, 2017,  x + 326 pp., $27.99 hardcover. Dangerous Charisma: The Political Psychology of Donald Trump and His Followers. By Jerrold M. Post with Stephanie R. Doucette. New York: , , pp., $27.95 hardcover.

Since the contentious 2016 presidential race and the election of a controversial president, considerable attention has been paid to the behavior and attitudes of that president, including many questions about his mental stability. Psychiatrists wonder what contribution they might make to the public discourse or what they might be permitted to responsibly and ethically say in light of the American Psychiatric Association ethics annotation that has come to be known (misconstrued) as the “Goldwater rule.” The first thing to appreciate about the so-called Goldwater rule is that it is not a rule, but rather a principle.

Rule or principle, what's the difference? And why does it matter? The APA's “code of ethics” is the Annotations Applicable to Psychiatry of the AMA Principles of Medical Ethics, which states explicitly that