Martha Mitchell effect

File:Martha Mitchell 1969 - NARA - 194649 (cropped).jpg

Martha Mitchell, for whom the effect is named

The Martha Mitchell effect occurs when a medical professional labels a patient's accurate perception of real events as delusional, resulting in misdiagnosis.<ref name=Coleman2015>Coleman, A. (2015). A Dictionary of Psychology. p441.</ref ><ref name=Alexander1996>Alexander, G. J. (1996). International Human Rights Protection Against Psychiatric Political Abuses. Santa Clara L. Rev., 37, 387.</ref>

Description

According to Bell et al., "Sometimes, improbable reports are erroneously assumed to be symptoms of mental illness (Maher, 1998)", due to a "failure or inability to verify whether the events have actually taken place, no matter how improbable intuitively they might appear to the busy clinician."<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Examples of such situations are:

• Pursuit by organized criminals<ref name=":0" />
• Surveillance by law enforcement officers<ref name=":0" />
• Infidelity by a spouse<ref name=":0" />
• Physical issues

Quoting psychotherapist Joseph Berke, the authors report that, "even paranoids have enemies."<ref name=":0" /> Delusions are "abnormal beliefs" and may be bizarre (considered impossible to be true), or non-bizarre (possible, but considered by the clinician as highly improbable). Beliefs about being poisoned, being followed, marital infidelity or a conspiracy in the workplace are examples of non-bizarre beliefs that may be considered delusions.<ref name=":0" /> Any patient can be misdiagnosed by clinicians, especially patients with a history of paranoid delusions.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Origin

Psychologist Brendan Maher named the effect after Martha Mitchell.<ref name=Maher1988>Maher, Brendan A. (1988) "Anomalous Experience and Delusional Thinking: The Logic of Explanations". In T. Oltmanns and B. Maher (eds) Delusional Beliefs. New York: Wiley Interscience</ref> Mitchell was the wife of John Mitchell, United States Attorney General in the Nixon administration. When she alleged that White House officials were engaged in illegal activities, her claims were attributed to mental illness. Ultimately, however, the facts of the Watergate scandal vindicated her and garnered her the label "The Cassandra of Watergate".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Although it has been stated that many of her allegations remain unproven, even some of the extreme ones have been confirmed. She claimed to have been drugged and put under guard during a visit to California after her husband was summoned back to Washington, D.C., in order to prevent her from leaving the hotel or making phone calls to the news media.<ref>Reeves, Richard President Nixon: Alone in the White House, p. 511</ref> James McCord confirmed in 1975 that her story was true, as reported in The New York Times.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> More evidence supporting Mitchell's claims was published in a 2017 news article in Newsweek about the appointment of Stephen B. King, the security agent who abducted Mitchell, as the U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2022, Netflix released a documentary titled The Martha Mitchell Effect.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• Adrian Schoolcraft
• Arnold Juklerød
• Argument from ignorance
• False memory
• Gaslighting
• Goldwater rule
• Gustl Mollath
• Psychosis
• Rosemary's Baby (novel)
• Rosenhan experiment