Amber Heard’s Mental Health Is Being Weaponized to Deny Her Credibility, Experts Say

According to Davis, Depp’s use of the psychologist as a witness is meant to convince jurors “to believe that [Heard’s] recollection of events is untrue,” and that her “potential mental instability” renders her “unable to tell the truth.” When individuals allege they’ve experienced sexual or domestic violence, particularly in high-profile cases like this, we’ll often see claims about their mental health made in an effort to detract from their credibility.

It’s certainly notable that despite how deeply disturbing allegations have been made on both sides of this trial, the most salient narrative that’s taken hold is that Heard, not Depp, is a crazy, unreliable narrator.

Depp has previously cited drugs, alcohol, and substance use struggles as the source of some of his admitted acts of violence. And his invocations of his mental health have been treated as justification or rationalization of his behavior, rather than a reason he shouldn’t be believed. A 2018 lawsuit against the actor alleges that he punched a male crew member on a movie set whilst on a drunken tirade; the attack and the male crew member’s allegations largely slipped through the cracks in the public consciousness, while Heard’s 2016 allegations continue to be widely questioned and disbelieved.

Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor overseeing domestic violence cases and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, says the recent focus on questioning only Heard’s mental condition is a tactic to “dirty her up and really attack her credibility.”

“They’re trying to paint this picture of a monster, and to kind of play into the stereotypes about liars, unstable women,” Rahmani told Jezebel. “It’s the same thing, or similar, in sexual assault cases I’ve seen where accused men will invoke the victims’ past sexual history, the way the woman was dressed. It’s about credibility.”

In another uniquely high-profile gender-based violence case, the legal team defending Stanford rapist Brock Turner focused its efforts on portraying Chanel Miller, his victim, as a chronic alcoholic who couldn’t recall the events of the night he assaulted her, and lacked the mental capacity to be trusted. In Heard’s case, Rahmani says Depp’s legal team is essentially asserting “she’s borderline [BPD], so therefore, she’s a narcissistic, pathological liar.” Ableism as it pertains to mental health and sexism are often intertwined when it comes to picking apart the character and credibility of women who say they were harmed.

In contrast, we’ve previously seen the mental states of men accused of harm used to absolve them of responsibility. Earlier this year, amid concerns that Kanye West’s obsessive treatment of ex Kim Kardashian and her boyfriend, Pete Davidson, amounted to stalking, many of West’s supporters cited his struggles with bipolar disorder and other conditions to dismiss the concerns.

As Rahmani notes, sexual assault and gender-based violence are vastly underreported. He fears treatment of Heard’s mental health by Depp’s lawyers, characterizing her as crazy and dishonest, is the sort of retaliation that discourages reporting. “There’s this misperception that sexual violence is widely falsely reported, and that’s really what Depp and his team are relying on and trying to do here,” he said.

Davis says that as the topic of mental health is increasingly destigmatized, she hopes we’ll see fewer and fewer cases in which it’s used to attack the credibility of women who say they were harmed. “As it becomes more common nowadays for people to have anxiety diagnosis, or temporary depression, I believe it will be less and less of a shortcut for people to successfully use in trial to vilify someone.”

The defamation trial launched by Depp comes after he first filed a $50 million lawsuit against Heard over her op-ed, in March 2019. Heard asked a Virginia judge to dismiss the suit, citing a 2020 ruling in the UK that tossed Depp’s lawsuit against a tabloid for calling him a “wife-beater” in reference to Heard’s allegations. But last summer, a Virginia judge allowed Depp’s new lawsuit to move forward, and the actor has said he hopes it will “bring things to light” and clear his name after a “surreal five years.”