August 21, 2007 -
In July GamePolitics reported that controversial Miami attorney Jack Thompson was under pressure from Florida Bar officials to undergo a psychiatric evaluation (see Jack Thompson says FL Bar Official Demanded He Take Psych Test, Accept Suspension).In documents filed Monday with the U.S. District Court in Florida where he has a pair of lawsuits in progress against the Bar, Thompson wrote that he pre-emptively saw a psychologist at his own expense. A six-page report from the PhD was filed with the court this morning. It reads in part:
The overall impression is that of a socially committed, and religiously devout man, of Superior Intellectual Functioning, who does not suffer from any major mental illness or impairment. He is deeply committed to personal betterment and social progress which he feels involves the regulation of exposure of minors to pornography, obscenity and violence.
Concerning the accusations that Mr. Thompson displays “obsession” with pornography, obscenity and/or violence presented to minors, Mr. Thompson does not report or display any of said obsessions. That is, his self-report, his clinical presentation and his relationships with his wife and two close personal friends reveal no evidence of fixation with pornography, obscenity and/or violence. To the extent that testing data may reveal such obsessions, there was no evidence of this theme in his ideation.
Mr. Thompson appears to be a thoughtful, prosocial and erudite man whose life is anchored, fortified and enriched by his Evangelical Christianity. I find no evidence that his faith distorts, clouds or impairs his personal or professional judgment.
While Mr. Thompson displays certain areas of personal distress and difficulty, such problem areas are well within the range from which attorneys can and do practice competently and even expertly.
Dr. Wunderman's report notes that it is focused exclusively on three specific areas:
- Does Thompson suffer from a mental illness or disorder that impairs his capacity to competently practice law?
- Is Thompson obsessed with the prosecution and limiting of pornography and obscenity?
- Is Thompson obsessed with curtailing violent video-games that are marketed to minors.
The report also addressed Thompson's combative style:
I asked Mr. Thompson about the hyperbole and sarcasm that I read in some of his motions/pleadings. He said that he realizes that he may have offended some with his ad hominem writings, and he will be more moderate in his writing style in the future.
Comments
Doesn't clear the fact that he's a loser. Remember the Alabama case? Bully? Louisiana Bill? Utah Bill?
I wonder if the psychologist included all of Jack's Gamepolitics postings in his analysis?
BTW JT, I just bought my copy of BioShock. Oddly enough I don't feel the urge to turn people to ice and shatter them or start anything on fire. You jackass.
Nor is him being declared physiological incompetent something I would want to see happen. I want people to see Jack Thompson for the perfectly sane, lying, self-righteous hypocrite he is. Mental illness is something that deserves sympathy and understanding, Thompson deserves nether.
-Auto
Fortunately, sane people can still be consitently and severely wrong about all kinds of things.
What is with this propensity we have for wanting out foes and detractors to be nuts? We're not Batman, so it's not going to always be off to the asylum with them -- as fun as that would be.
Besides, we're labelling him as crazy for what? His juvenile and insulting behavior towards all gamers and his inablility to take any viewpoint other than his own as anything more than a joke? If that were the recipe for craziness, Thompson would be right in labelling most gamers insane... 'cause those traits are far from uncommon.
p.s. Try not to choke on your constanly wagging tongue Jackie-boy.
COMMUNISTS, I SEE COMMUNISTS.
Another court-appointed psychiatrist will evaluate you again for court with different criteria's that will have to do with the case instead of a general behavior evaluation like you just passed. The case is just starting and you're not out of the woods yet. Now choke on your Hooah's and brace yourself for what's rightfully coming for you.
actually, untill JT blows himself up in a Gamestop or at e3, hes not quite the same as the muslims.
The court will likely appoint an independent psychiatrist rather than take the word of one you paid for, regardless of his standing with the Bar, to avoid conflict of interest.
If I say I hate religious fanatics, it's because to me JT is no different from David Koresh, Jim Jones or the Muslims who blow themselves up in the name of Allah. They are hellbent on forcing their religion and morality down other people's throats whether they want it or not and they don't care if they kill a few people or infringe on other's rights to do it.
I don't use the word hate lightly. I've had firsthand experience with these people. They brainwashed and manipulated me emotionally. They preached peace and love and forgiveness out of one side of their mouths, but the other side revealed intolerance and bigotry. They have condemned and been trying to take away everything I liked or had an interest in; whether it was video games, Heavy Metal music, sex, D&D or whatever. I hate them for what they did to me, I hate them for lying to me and I hate their smug moral arrogance and superiorty. JT is one of many examples, but he's the most visible.
The difference between science and religion is that science allows for theories to be disproven if a better explanation comes along. It is not dogma. It is not "holy writ" unlike religion which has vigorously contested and tried to suppress and stifle any scientific advancement. Look at what the church did to Galileo for instance. If they had their way, we would still be thinking Earth was the center of the universe!
Religion is control, plain and simple. JT is a living embodiment of this as he uses his faith as a justifaction to tell people what they should and shouldn't do and that's not right. In a perfect world, religion should be for spiritual advancement and introspection, but more often than not it has been perverted into a justifaction for people to do all sorts of horrible things to one another. How many wars has science started?
I'll take science over religion any day, thank you very much.
P.S.: I'm getting BioShock in an hour, just try and stop me Jackie boy!
All this really means is that he deliberately, vindictively and knowingly broke the Bar rules on numerous occasions.
He doesn't need to report it, even a person with little computer skill can easily google the name "Jack Thompson" and see his zealot like acts upon the video game industry as a whole and his obscession with anything which gets pumped out from Take Two Interactive Software or one of their subsidiary companies...
" - Does Thompson suffer from a mental illness or disorder that impairs his capacity to competently practice law?"
Yes, it's called Extremist Obsessive Compulsory Activity (Not a real medical term). In other words, he's the equivalent of a troll with a license to practice law who jumps at the first sign of a game with even the slightest hint of violence or sexuality because it may "harm our children", yet the thing is rated M (Which means 17+).
Because some parent may buy this game for their kids, I can't play it because this zealot (and certain politicians) think it will harm our children? This is why I want a political party of nothing but gamers, organised by gamers, and run by gamers with legal representation and lobbyist whom are active gamers. Reason being? Somehow, they seem to be the only ones thinking clearly.
"- Is Thompson obsessed with the prosecution and limiting of pornography and obscenity?
- Is Thompson obsessed with curtailing violent video-games that are marketed to minors."
Yes on both counts. How so? Well, kind of hard to market something to minors when its been rated Mature (17!!!!) or in the case of Manhunt 2 and the formerly rated GTA: San Andreas, Adults Only (Which might as well mean it's banned). It's kind of difficult to market something when it can't even be sold in a retailer or even placed on a console...
"He said that he realizes that he may have offended some with his ad hominem writings, and he will be more moderate in his writing style in the future."
May have? Be more moderate?! I'll believe it when I see it!
"evangelical christian" eh? ya know what, I think I heard those crazys who protest military funerals use that same term.
i believe it
Don't you have anything better to do than pretend to be Jack?
That means anything that could impair him. So ANYTHING would (or should, at least) have been considered. That includes personality disorders. It doesn’t just mean things with a biological basis.
I didn't mean to say that those weren't tested for; rather that the only thing I was convinced of was him being cleared of clinical causes of impairment. I've met several people that were high function head cases. They had personality disorders, but that didn't really significantly impair their ability to do their jobs. So it's a bit of q question in my mind what the tester thought to be impacting Jack's professional practice, and what was just impacting personal areas.
However, SOMETHING should have come up in this testing that was a red flag.
I'm not saying that I doubt the effectiveness of the tests, nor that red flags weren't raised. Hell, from reading the report it's clear that a few were, just that they were in "personal areas". My concern is that the report is too narrowly focused, and that some information that would likely be relevant was withheld.
In short I'm suspicious that if the report were broadened, or the examiner provided with a clearer picture of Jack's behavior at various times, problems relevant to the Bar's concerns would be revealed.
All in all, at the very least, we can still agree that his practices are unethical, unreasonable. And, he can’t argue they should give his license back when he’s “well.”
Agreed. The kicker in all this is that being declared sane does nothing to excuse the actions that the Bar finds objectionable, whereas being declared to have a psych problem contributing to his behavior could be used to help with that.
Just closing the italics and would like to say that I don't care if he is sane or insane. He acts like a jerk and makes wildly unprofessional claims about those who don't agree with him and that affects his ability to practice law. For that he should be disbarred.
science-heres a theory do everything in your power to disprove it even if its not what humanity wants to hear.
religion-here a work of fiction from 2000+ years ago do everything in your power to prove everything about it is correct to please or brainwarshed followers.
Um, no, some religious people (like me) don't feel that everything about their sacred scriptures need be correct.
both are exact polar opposites they cannot co-exist in todays zealot environment.I don’t care really in what “invisible pink unicorns” folks
believe in but when they try and pass fiction on as some kind of fact
or shove draconian morals down our throats then it bothers me.
They can co-exist. The problem here is that the fundamentalists have so much public attention that people have forgotten not all religious people are anything like fundamentalists. If religion is restricted to things science can't answer (like philosophy), it's perfectly reasonable, although it's still not okay to force religious morals on other peple. But stop insisting that all religion is evil because of the fanatics.
Well Dennis as you should know by now Jack has a creepy, crazy hate/attraction to you. If you would have posted the entire thing he would have posted his disapproval and threatened you for invading his privacy. If you didn't post it, which you didn't, he would chide you for not posting the entire thing, which he did.
So it comes down to if you have a picture of Jack on the toilet, he will get mad at you if you post it, and mad at you if you don't post it.
Because despite what this doctor says, Jack is insane.
1. Jack Thompson is found mentally sound of mind and we continue on fighting him and his followers; as well as trying to prove that his work ethics are bad.
2. Jack Thompson is found to be mentally ill this would diminish the number of his followers greatly and we be fighting against those stragglers who still believe Thompson's theories.
Personally I want scenario two to happen because I think it would be a big win for gamers.
1. It is alleged that Mr. Thompson suffers from a mental illness or disorder that impairs his capacity to competently practice law.
That means anything that could impair him. So ANYTHING would (or should, at least) have been considered. That includes personality disorders. It doesn't just mean things with a biological basis.
What I'm basically saying is, this report is strong evidence in his favor for his sanity. By no means is it concrete however. Not to mention the fact that the measured factors were "within tolerances." All that means is that anything he exhibited as a symptom was sub-clinical.
Also, it doesn't say how many criteria he met for anything. He could be considered sane simply based on the fact that he met criteria for seven out of eleven symptoms for something when the requirement was eight out of eleven. I'm not talking in definites here. I'm not saying he's sane. I honestly wouldn't rule out a personality disorder either. The problem there is that personality disorders are so hard to catch. It isn't entirely uncommon for some to go undiagnosed for 5 or 10 years. However, SOMETHING should have come up in this testing that was a red flag.
I've studied a lot of these tests extensively. More than a lot of my peers. Hell, the MMPI was even designed mostly by my school. What I WILL say for certain is that there wasn't full disclosure to this doctor. I honestly don't hold Mr. Thompson accountable for that. There is entirely too much that could be analized.
All in all, at the very least, we can still agree that his practices are unethical, unreasonable. And, he can't argue they should give his license back when he's "well."
It's certainly a clever strategy on JT's part, but the Bar will still probably insist on its own review. It's unclear how much of a picture the shrink had of Jack's conduct, so it's hard to make that judgment.
As to posting the entire report, I have it, but it creeps me out to post someone's psych review. If JT wants to post it, fine - and I see that he has. Readers certainly got the flavor of it from what I wrote.
The thing with the AL judge, dunno. Jack is a spinner, so I want to read the transcript for myself.
First off, I'm sure that the Bar will recommend that the psychiatrist be given more material than simply what JT supplied. Sure, he may have undergone hours of tests, but some additional material will go a long way.
Secondly, cudos on keeping it mostly clean so far JT. Now, if only your attacks on GP's ethics, mental state, and journalistic integrity weren't ad hominem attacks, you'd have kept your word for nearly a day. I'm pretty certain that the good doctor would enjoy seeing how you're doing so far.
Lastly, I think it's fine if he's declared sane. That just makes it one less excuse for all the unprofessional conduct he's performed. Honestly, it makes far more sense from my point of view to disbar him for his behaviour itself, rather than trying to claim there's a reason beyond him simply being unprofessional and a disgrace to the profession.
I quote from the evaluation you posted:
"Privileged and Confidential: For Professional Usage Only"
That is why he did not link it.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Jack, you have been put on trial and found innocent of the claims of being two sandwiches short of a picnic. That much is reasonably true.
(Quick note: Let's not try to out-Jack him by formulating a conspiracy between he and Wunderman. That won't end well.)
But try to remember that you were put on trial in the first place. Your actions and attitude caused people to put into question your ability to do your job, and to do so to such a degree that they had to get an outside evaluator in to see if you were capable. The fact that he concluded in your favour is some consolation, but the fact that he was asked to analyse you in the first place should tell you something.
Assuming that Mr. Thompson isn't deliberately dropping an "s" from the relevant pronouns, it would seem that the Dr. Wunderman in question isn't the one identified by nightwng2000 however far up.
I do agree on one thing. This site is in painful need of comments moderation and a login. All these fake Jacks are annoying to deal with.
Once again, you prove to be incapable of taking responsibility for your own actions.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
While religion, even a dishonorable unethical religion, can coexist with any particular profession, it is clear that in this context, a conflict of interest, both in method of evaluation as well as the determining of results.
A far more proper and in depth evaluation should be required. And it should be done by someone who is not so clearly biased and has a clear conflict of interest in these matters.
Frankly, John Bruce, you've only proven just how dishonorable, unethical, and corrupt not only you are, but just how dishonorable, unethical, and corrupt some members of the mental health profession can be.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Thank you for posting that huge chunk of text. I'll be sure to honor yours and Dr. Wunderman's reputations by not reading it.
Regards,
Quad
P.S. You are boring.