i admit to not having much confidence in psychiatric testimony... an article this morning hurts the credibility of psychiatric testing and evaluations even more imo---
"Mother found incompetent to stand trial for allegedly strangling children to death
GOSHEN, Ind. (AP) — A woman accused of strangling her four young children is incompetent to stand trial, a judge has ruled....
Shewmaker said in his ruling that he based his decision on the findings of three court-appointed psychiatrists and his own observations.
The test for competency is whether a defendant can assist in her defense and whether she understands the proceedings.
One psychiatrist said Alvarez could do both, one determined she could do neither and one said she understood the proceedings but could not assist in her defense.
http://www.courttv.com/news/2007/051...ngling_ap.html
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so, 3 Court-Appointed shrinks examine the same woman, i assume within the same time frame, with the same standards... and reach 3 different conclusions...
do you have more or less confidence in psychiatric evaluations than in, say, reading tea leaves ?
imo.
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