There's evidence that politicians as a group are more likely to be narcissists than the average person, but that doesn't make it ethical to apply that diagnosis — or any psychiatric label — to a specific candidate without an in-person assessment.
So argues Robert Klitzman, a professor of psychiatry and bioethics at Columbia University, in The New York Times today. He cites the American Psychiatric Association's "Goldwater Rule," which holds that "it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement."
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