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Christopher Cheok, a psychiatrist and a Senior Consultant at the Institute of Mental Health, provided evidence to the Committee of Privileges (COP) on Dec. 22 saying that based on his assessment, Raeesah Khan was of "sound mind".
This was after the Committee had invited Raeesah to undergo a psychiatric assessment, following a suggestion by Workers' Party leader Pritam Singh during a previous hearing on Dec. 10.
Background
In his testimony, Singh said that Raeesah had told him that she suffers from dissociation and it is "possible" that lied in her WhatsApp message saying that the Workers' Party leaders told her to take the information to the grave.
He added that it would be helpful for the Committee to evaluate her mental health condition.
In Sylvia Lim's testimony, she also referred to her notes of the panel's interview with Raeesah on Nov. 29 to claim that Raeesah said she had added the untruthful anecdote as she was "dissociated":
"... she said that she was asked, I mean the original draft, that she put up of that speech, which was I think two days before the Motion itself. That anecdote was not in the first draft. And her explanation was that she was dissociated, and she did not realise what she was doing, and she had gone for therapy."
Cheok's evaluation
Cheok explained that dissociation is a symptom rather than a medical diagnosis, referring to the loss of the integrative function of the human mind. It may be experienced by normal persons in different situations.
Dissociative identity disorder, however, is different. It is "extremely rare" and he could not recall coming across any such patients in his career, he said.
Raeesah was not suffering from any significant psychiatric disorder within a certain time frame
Cheok assessed Raeesah on Dec. 17 and 20, interviewed her husband and also reviewed relevant recordings of her speaking in Parliament and testifying before the COP.
Based on his assessment, Raeesah was not suffering from any significant psychiatric disorder when she spoke in Parliament on Aug. 3, Oct. 4 and Nov. 1, or before the COP on Dec. 2 and 3
Cheok said that according to the Singapore Mental Capacity Act, it is said that a person has mental capacity when they are able to understand the information relevant to the decision, retain that information, use or weigh that information in the decision-making process, and to communicate that decision.
"By using this standard, I say, I will pin that she was fit to testify before this committee on the second and third of December," Cheok said.
After a question from Minister Desmond Lee, Cheok added:
"Yes, I agree that from the period of August all the way to December the third, she did not suffer from a psychiatric disorder so significant that it would have impaired her ability to give evidence or to make her speeches."
She also did not suffer from any psychiatric disorder that would predispose her to telling untruths.
On this note, Cheok added that in his 25 years of practice, he found that many of those with psychiatric disorders do not tell untruths more than any other human being.
While Raeesah had some symptoms of psychological trauma, Cheok clarified that it didn't reach the levels of severity where it would be diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Might trauma result in certain symptoms such as "false memory creation" or "memory lapses"?
Workers' Party MP Dennis Tan, who is a member of the Committee, asked if it is possible for a person with trauma-induced dissociation to exhibit symptoms.
He gave the examples of "false memory creation" or "memory lapses" whenever the subject or trauma is brought up.
Cheok said yes, it is possible in general, however, it is important to take every case into context.
Tan later asked, in the context of the WhatsApp message sent by Raeesah, whether it could be an example of a high-functioning person, suffering from a trauma, selectively putting in a lie in her message.
"In this specific instance, in the context of Ms Khan and what I've assessed, I disagree with your statement," Cheok said.
Cheok further stated:
"She doesn't suffer from dissociation. She may have said so but I think she used the term in a lay person's capacity, not from a professional definition of what dissociation is.
So my testimony is that she does not suffer from dissociation or traumatic dissociation, for that matter. I do not think that even when she speaks on the topic of her sexual assault, it affected her so severely that she lost her mental capacity."
Lapses in judgment cannot always be attributed to mental disorders
Tan continued asking Cheok: "Perhaps not losing mental capacity but lapses of judgment? Telling a lie, for example? Could you exclude that definitively?"
To that, Cheok explained that "making bad judgments doesn't mean it's due to mental illness".
Cheok: It is said that people can make bad judgments and making bad judgments doesn't mean it's due to mental illness. Any normal human being can make bad judgments.
Tan: But it (the bad judgment) could be due to the trauma? The bad judgment could be due to the trauma?
Cheok: In specific, for this particular instance, I do not think so.
"Dissociation"
So how did Raeesah even arrive at the conclusion that she suffered from "dissociation" at all? Tan asked.
According to Cheok, Raeesah had told him that she was told by her psychotherapist that she had dissociation.
Cheok also said that he did not believe Raeesah fully understood what dissociation was:
"I had asked her what did she mean by "dissociation"? And her reply made me believe that she didn't fully understand what dissociation was. And when she used that term, she did not have a deep understanding of what that term meant."
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Top photo via gov.sg/YouTube.