Depp Witness Says Heard Showed Signs Of Personality Disorders

On Tuesday, forensic psychologist Dr Shannon Curry told jurors she believed Amber Heard suffered from twin diagnoses: borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder.

Dr Curry, who was hired by Mr Depp’s team to conduct a psychological evaluation of his ex-wife, said she had reached her conclusion after spending about 12 hours with Ms Heard in December 2021, conducting mental health tests and reviewing her medical records.

Borderline personality is a disease of instability, Dr Curry said, marked by “a lot of anger, cruelty toward people less powerful and attention seeking”.

The behaviours are “driven by an underlying fear of abandonment”, she said. “They will make desperate attempts to prevent that from happening.

Evidence in court has included several audio clips of Ms Heard begging Mr Depp not to leave her.

Dr Curry also said that borderline personality disorder seemed to be “predictive” for women who incite violence against their partners.

Histrionic personality disorder, Dr Curry said, is linked with “drama and shallowness”, and a need to be the centre of attention.

Facing cross-examination by Ms Heard’s lawyers, Dr Curry was pressed on the question of bias, noting she had been hosted for dinner at Ms Depp’s home before she was hired. Dr Curry responded it was simply a part of the interview process.

Dr Curry’s testimony has since been criticised by some domestic abuse advocates who said such diagnoses can be used to undermine accounts of assault.

“I was not surprised at all to see this happen, as it was predictable and lazy,” psychologist Dr Jessica Taylor said in a statement. “Thousands of women just like Amber… will be ordered to have psychiatric evaluations which more often than not, diagnose her with a personality disorder in order to discredit her testimony.”

Source: BBC News