Saturday, January 15, 2011

Who Are You Going to Believe: Me or Your Eyes?

Jared Lee Loughner's high-school girlfriend, Ashley Figueroa, told ABC News she does not think Loughner is mentally ill. ""I think he's faking everything," she said.

This prompted Salon.com to comment:
Figueroa is not a doctor, and these claims conflict with the opinion of top doctors in the field of psychiatry.
Well, sure. I can't imagine why we would take more seriously the judgment of someone who actually knew him intimately not long ago over a bunch of self-serving psychiatrists who never even met him.
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9 comments:

  1. GreybirdJanuary 15, 2011 at 12:02 PM

    Well, with my being a committed Marxist — as in Chico, whom you quote in your title — I have to say that you just don't appreciate the travails of the oppressed and downtrodden court-psychologist class and their role in the superstructure of production. For without such long-distance diagnoses, how would they make a living? {/sarc}

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  2. Sheldon RichmanJanuary 15, 2011 at 12:06 PM

    As one such Marxist to another, let me say that you gave me a chuckle and brought smile to my face.

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  3. D. Saul WeinerJanuary 15, 2011 at 12:36 PM

    This is a problem in medicine in general. Forget what anyone with any actual experience with a healing application (drug, herb, etc.) had to say about it, it's all ANECDOTAL. Listen to the experts, armed with their sophisticated statistical analyses. Kind of sounds like the world of economic policy-making too, no? Just trust the experts.

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  4. Kevin CarsonJanuary 16, 2011 at 1:45 AM

    Didn't we go through this a few years back with Bill Frist and Michael Schiavo?

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  5. N. Joseph PottsJanuary 16, 2011 at 11:32 AM

    There stubbornly persists among the ignorati a hunger for Expert Opinions.

    This hunger will be served. You also may partake of this widely consumed commodity, but bear in mind that, as a "free" good (a nonesuch), it still costs more than it is worth.

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  6. TomJanuary 16, 2011 at 6:08 PM

    How can you tell when someone is faking mental illness vs. when someone has a "real" mental illness. I remember an anecdote from one of Szasz's books that I read years ago. It seems some psychiatrists were able to fool other psychiatrists into thinking that they were mental patients. After all, you can't fake cancer. (unless you tamper with the blood tests). Silly me. I thought mental illness was just like every other illness.

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  7. Sheldon RichmanJanuary 18, 2011 at 6:14 AM

    Faking mental (or other) illness is itself a form of mental illness, according to psychiatry. When researchers have been sent into mental institutions with bogus diagnoses of illness, doctors interpreted all their behavior as symptoms of their "illness," even note-taking.

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  8. ToryIIJanuary 19, 2011 at 5:05 AM

    [Repeat:]

    Just don't forget, he shot, at close range, a beautiful adult female (in the freaking head), and another beautiful nine year old (in her tiny little chest).

    I'm not accusing anyone here of being insensitive. The topic is about sanity or insanity.
    --------------------------
    Only a nut would seek refuge in a insane asylum.

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  9. ToryIIJanuary 19, 2011 at 5:21 AM

    How to create your own gun free zone (two minute video):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7pGt_O1uM8

    ReplyDelete