Martha Mitchell effect

The Martha Mitchell effect is when a psychiatrist, psychologist or mental health clinician diagnoses a person with a mental illness involving false beliefs, such as delusions or paranoia, despite the fact that the person is simply describing things that are factually true, but the clinician believes otherwise.

Theory
Martha Beall Mitchell was the wife of then-President Nixon's Attorney General, John Mitchell. Martha Mitchell became aware of the Watergate scandal and had been urging reporters she knew to investigate "dirty tricks" against the Democrats. When James McCord, who had ties to Nixon, was among those arrested at Watergate, Mitchell called a reporter friend, Helen Thomas, to report the connection. Seemingly as a direct result, Stephen King, a prominent Republican who had been assigned to keep an eye on Mitchell, assaulted her in her hotel room, pulling the phone out of her hands and shoving her against a wall. When Thomas called back, she was told that Mitchell was "indisposed".

Conspiracy theories involve a “vast, insidious, preternaturally effective international conspiratorial network designed to perpetrate acts of most fiendish character”. Conspiracy theories often involve deception in matters of international importance.

Mitchell's claim that high-level White House officials had conspired to commit crimes and keep them from the American people had many elements of existing conspiracy theories. This led high-level officials to speculate that she suffered from mental illness.

Ultimately, however, when the facts of Watergate came to light, it was clear that Mitchell was correct: she was threatened, physically abused, and possibly kidnapped in an attempt to keep her from spreading information about Watergate with others.

The Martha Mitchell effect is used to describe any instance in which a person accurately describing their reality is diagnosed with a mental health condition.

It may be that the person who falls victim to the Martha Mitchell effect does, in fact, have a mental health problem but is still accurately describing reality, or it may be that the person has no mental health condition, and is merely describing something that is hard to believe.

Notable studies and academic publications

 * 2017, Contesting the psychiatric framing of ME/CFS (Full text)
 * 2003, Beliefs about delusions (Full text)

Articles, talks and videos

 * 2013, You needn't be wrong to be called delusional

Learn more

 * Wikipedia