Psychiatry group allows commenting on Trump
soon or by the end of the year after completing the reorganisation of the state department, essentially after getting rid of surplus staff.
Tillerson has had troubles with the White House over staffing, and has been forced to drop people he was considering for some senior level position at the state department, such as Elliot Abrams, who was being considered for the Number 2 slot.
Many senior level positions remain vacant. Of the 32 top posts, only one has been filled with a Senate-confirmed appointee. And only five have been nominated or selected for the remaining positions, according to one count.
Staffing problems have led to at least one heated exchange between Tillerson and director of presidential personnel, Johnny DeStefano, at the White House in the presence senior officials such as senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner and chief of staff Reince Priebus.
Tillerson has also been seen to be at odds with Trump on key foreign policy. Just hours after Tillerson made an appeal for an end to the blockade of Qatar in June, Trump came out against Qatar calling it a “funder of terrorism, and at a very high level.”
The American Psychoanalytic Association has allowed its members to comment on the mental state of politicians, suspending a rule that has been in place since 1973.
The executive committee of the leading psychiatry group sent an email to its 3,500 members, stating they should not feel bound by a longstanding rule against commenting publicly on the mental state of public figures. This also includes President Donald Trump, reported STAT news.
The former president of the association, Dr Prudence Gourguechon, said the email was prompted by “belief in the value of psychoanalytic knowledge in explaining human behaviour”.
“We don’t want to prohibit our members from using their knowledge responsibly... That responsibility is especially great today since Trump’s behaviour is so different from anything we’ve seen before,” she said.
The Goldwater rule of 1964 keeps experts from publicly talking about the psychiatric condition of public figures. It was written after a survey of more than 1,000 psychiatrists claimed then Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater was “psychologically unfit to be President”.