Psychiatrist who testified for Amber Heard says Depp fan backlash caused him ’emotional concussion’

• Psychiatrist Dr. David Spiegel testified for Amber Heard in the Johnny Depp v. Heard trial.
• Dr. Spiegel has spoken out about the reaction and his time on the stand.
• Depp fan backlash caused him ’emotional concussion’.

Psychiatrist Dr. David Spiegel, who testified for Amber Heard in the Johnny Depp v. Heard trial, has spoken out about the judgement and his time on the stand, describing the reaction as a “emotional concussion.”

Heard’s legal team engaged Dr. Spiegel to testify about Depp’s behaviour, which he described as “consistent with both substance use disorder and actions of someone who is a perpetrator of intimate partner abuse.”

During cross-examination, Depp’s lawyers pointed out that Dr. Spiegel had never met or personally evaluated Depp, which was a violation of the Goldwater Rule of the American Psychiatrist Association.

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The Goldwater Rule holds that doctors should not diagnose a public figure’s mental condition unless they have personally evaluated them.

Dr. Spiegel recalled his time on the stand in a story for Newsweek in an attempt to appeal to those who trash-talked and mocked the Virginia psychiatrist after his testimony.

Dr. Spiegel wrote, “Never in my life have I been the target of such voluminous amounts of hate, ever.”

Dr. Spiegel describes his emotional reaction to watching so many individuals online spew hatred and accusations of his knowledge as “an emotional concussion.”

The practising doctor stated that he took a vacation to see one of his children, that he has been offline since testifying, and that he has requested his family to delete their personal websites and social media accounts.

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Beyond the derogatory comments and memes directed at Dr. Spiegel, he explained that such severe criticism from strangers could jeopardise his job as a psychiatrist and scholar. He added that many patients, relatives, and friends had provided support, including t-shirts that said “We’re With Dr. Spiegel.”

“I would say to people who have attacked me that, just like they don’t know Mr. Depp, they don’t know me,” Dr. Spiegel wrote in the Newsweek article. “I would ask people to remember that there are appropriate ways that you can say you are dissatisfied with my testimony or that it may have been short-sighted. I’m an expert at this. It’s not like I saw one clip of Mr. Depp, and then said, “Oh, let me judge this.'”