Re: American Psychiatric Association

Robert Owen (rowen@technologist.com)
Sun, 17 Oct 1999 23:37:35 -0400

phil osborn wrote:

> >From: Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se>
> >Subject: Re: American Psychiatric Association
> >Date: 18 Oct 1999 00:44:13 +0200

> > > Phil Osborn wrote:
> > > >Bottom line: If I were to try to increase my credibility, I don't
> >think I
> > > >would quote the American Psychaitric Association.
> > > They certainly don't have my respect.

Anders:
> >There is a big deal of difference between respect and
> >credibility. Saying that the APA has no credibility is roughly like
> >saying that the IAU, the International Astronomical Union, has no
> >credibility. Sure, they have been wrong about things in the past and
> >even done stupid things, but that doesn't mean everything they do and
> >say can be discounted - there is plenty of good, well researched and
> >argued science going on too. What is needed is critical thinking to
> >separate the chaff from the wheat.

Phil:
> The last thing I particularly recall about these jerks
> The "doctors" never caught on
> Who was crazy here?

Your obvious need to cite particular cases and then generalize them to ALL cases is not only logically fallacious but suggestive of a painful personal experience with respect to psychiatric treatment. The same may be said regarding your gratuitous use of pejorative terms and references, which as a matter of fact are both reminiscent of the medically illiterate subculture that verbalizes the same contempt for professional medicine, and only presents a gangrenous limb at some ER when the only remedy is amputation.



Robert M. Owen
Director
The Orion Institute
57 W. Morgan Street
Brevard, NC 28712-3659 USA