Mood Swings

A Psychiatrist Surveys the Mind and the Wider World

Dr. Nassir Ghaemi, MD, MPH is director of the mood disorders and psychopharmacology programs in the department of psychiatry at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. See full bio

June 22, 2009, Psychiatry

Comments on "Professor Anti-Stigma"

Professor Anti-Stigma

By Dr. Nassir Ghaemi on June 22, 2009 in Mood Swings

One might call it Pope’s rule: Your motives are revealed by your focus. An interesting hypothesis, especially as confirmed in cases like that of Professor Anti-Stigma. Read More

No Excuse...

Submitted by SteveM on June 23, 2009 - 4:36am.

Re: "...that many of those obsessed with the pharmaceutical industry and the role of money in all aspects of medical work might be themselves a bit overly fond of funds."

What an absolutely ludicrous and frankly insulting proposition. So many (most?) of the people injured by psycho-pharmaceuticals who then seek not even financial redress, but an acknowledgment of their distress are in it for the money?

The idea that people who enter psychiatry/psychology are subconsciously motivated to self-diagnosis and self-correct is an old saw. However patients seeking medical help have absolutely no subconscious financial motivations. Their injuries from psycho-pharmaceuticals were thrust upon them. They were seeking nothing but relief. And those same perhaps dysfunctional psychiatrists failed them. How can you even remotely link the two?

Your association is a disgrace. You should be ashamed.

Hold on Steve

Submitted by Dr. Nassir Ghaemi on June 23, 2009 - 8:35am.

Steve

I have to disagree politely, and I hope you will do so politely as well in the future.

I was not claiming that EVERYONE who studies something has that problem, but it is relevant that those who see money as the root of all the problem in psychiatry are engaging in an economic materialism that was invented by Karl Marx. Now no one would claim to be a Marxist, but such persons are, in essence, using simplistic ideas with such roots. There are many more important things in life than money, not that money does not matter. Keynes, the world's greatest modern economist, should know more about it than you or me, and he said that it is ideas, and not vested interests, that are dangerous for good or ill.

Not you, but I wonder whether some persons who focus just on money in these debates indeed are driven by money. As I noted in my previous post, I have personal proof for this statement with my experiences with some lawyers engaged in suing the pharmaceutical industry.

So this is not merely an association that is speculatively made.

I hope you reconsider your comments.