Thank you very much for this thorough critique of Whitaker’s misleading pronouncements about the genetics of schizophrenia—his latest salvo in the anti-psychiatry campaign he and his MIA army have been waging for some time. I am not qualified to evaluate the complexities of the genetics or the statistical arguments. But I have observed t…
Thank you very much for this thorough critique of Whitaker’s misleading pronouncements about the genetics of schizophrenia—his latest salvo in the anti-psychiatry campaign he and his MIA army have been waging for some time. I am not qualified to evaluate the complexities of the genetics or the statistical arguments. But I have observed the damage that the anti-medical view of mental illness can do. Of course questions of etiology are infinitely complicated (and not resolvable in my lifetime). These are not just academic questions, however. “Have a better childhood” or “wait for a society to be more humanely organized” don’t cut it as solutions faced with acute mental suffering. The consequences of accepting Whitaker’s anti-medical propaganda can be dire. He positions himself in part as a crusader against the greed of Big Pharma, but he too has a dog in the fight. I don’t claim to know his motives, but Whitaker's livelihood is dependent on promoting his own ideological position. He is a journalist and the exposé is his bread and butter: An important function, but not when the baby goes the way of the bathwater and no realistic alternative is on offer.
Perhaps it is human nature to take a dim view of doctors—like undertakers, they inhabit a realm we would all rather avoid. They become associated with illness and pain and so end up being blamed for its existence.
Thank you very much for this thorough critique of Whitaker’s misleading pronouncements about the genetics of schizophrenia—his latest salvo in the anti-psychiatry campaign he and his MIA army have been waging for some time. I am not qualified to evaluate the complexities of the genetics or the statistical arguments. But I have observed the damage that the anti-medical view of mental illness can do. Of course questions of etiology are infinitely complicated (and not resolvable in my lifetime). These are not just academic questions, however. “Have a better childhood” or “wait for a society to be more humanely organized” don’t cut it as solutions faced with acute mental suffering. The consequences of accepting Whitaker’s anti-medical propaganda can be dire. He positions himself in part as a crusader against the greed of Big Pharma, but he too has a dog in the fight. I don’t claim to know his motives, but Whitaker's livelihood is dependent on promoting his own ideological position. He is a journalist and the exposé is his bread and butter: An important function, but not when the baby goes the way of the bathwater and no realistic alternative is on offer.
Perhaps it is human nature to take a dim view of doctors—like undertakers, they inhabit a realm we would all rather avoid. They become associated with illness and pain and so end up being blamed for its existence.