Word.ws English Dictionary

Goldwater rule

Goldwater rule proper noun: a section of the American Psychiatric Association's code of ethics, stating that it is unethical for a psychiatrist to give a professional opinion about a public figure they have not examined in person, and whose mental health they have not received consent to discuss.

Proper noun

Goldwater rule

  1. A section of the American Psychiatric Association's code of ethics, stating that it is unethical for a psychiatrist to give a professional opinion about a public figure they have not examined in person, and whose mental health they have not received consent to discuss.

Origin of Goldwater rule

Named after US presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, who successfully sued for libel over a 1964 article that polled psychiatrists on his fitness for presidency.

Questions about Goldwater rule

What does Goldwater rule mean?
Goldwater rule means a section of the American Psychiatric Association's code of ethics, stating that it is unethical for a psychiatrist to give a professional opinion about a public figure they have not examined in person, and whose mental health they have not received consent to discuss.
What part of speech is Goldwater rule?
Goldwater rule is a proper noun.

Words near Goldwater rule in the dictionary

  1. goldwasser
  2. Goldwassers
  3. Goldwater
  4. Goldwater Republican
  5. Goldwater Republicans
  6. Goldwater rule
  7. Goldwaterian
  8. Goldwaterism
  9. goldweed
  10. goldweight
  11. goldweights

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Goldwater rule (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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