but they're welcome to buy an iphone

 

The Son Of Man will watch over you

"This is our future," wrote the linking email.  McLuhan wrote The Medium Is The Message but due to a printing error, it came out Massage.  Proving his point.

Do the past 50 years, post psychoanalysis, seem like marking time in psychiatry?  A series of equally efficacious or toxic treatments being substituted for older versions that are ultimately not any different, all the while hearing the heralds proclaim the incredible advancements in "brain" diseases?  Genetics, serotonin, BDNF!

If it seems like countless billions in research money have not changed psychiatry at all over decades, it's because they haven't.

The first question a fertility doctor asks when she can't get pregnant: are you guys having sex?

Daniel Carlat, of the Carlat Report, has an article in the New York Times Magazine.  It's six pages long, and decidedly anti-Pharma.  But Daniel Carlat isn't from New York-- so why would he have an article published there?

You say: well, where he's from has nothing to do with it, the New York Times is publishing it because of what he says.

Exactly.

His article, well written and persuasive, stands as is, undisputed because there is no forum in which to dispute it.  I guess it would be nice if the Times would allow me to write an op-ed-- you know, in op to the ed-- but I guess this blog will have to do.

Carlat is wrong, very wrong, not because he is factually incorrect about his target, but because his target is a straw man.  The problem isn't Pharma.  It's doctors.

So once again I’m in the weird position of having to defend something I’m actually against.

 

 

The quote, "what hath God wrought" comes from Numbers 23:23, about the Israelites, but it was popularized by Samuel Morse when he sent it as the first message over the telegraph.

I've been telling everyone who will listen to buy Google-- it's up 140 points since I wrote about it a month ago-- because it is more than an investment, it is a paradigm shift.

A tremendous example of the societal narcissism I wrote about in my Time article with the funny cover.    If there was any one organization that I would have thought was in direct opposition to narcissism it would be the military, yet here it is, being specifically promoted.

I understand the practical necessity of this approach, of course; trying to tap into a listless and apathetic populace who get their current events from clips of the Colbert Report on YouTube-- they can't even be bothered to find Iraq or Afghanistan on a map, let alone enlist.  But mark my words, when a military cannot effectively appeal to any higher beliefs at all, and must resort to patronizing illusions of self-fulfillment only, then this society cannot last.

Look at the evolution of the slogans, and tell me I am exaggerating (from Army Times:)

“Today’s Army wants to join you”: 1971-73.

“Join the people who’ve joined the Army”: 1973-1979.

“This is the Army”: 1979-1981.

“Be all you can be”: 1981-2001.

“An Army of one”: 2001-2006.

Look at the grammar, the semiotic connotations.  A question for the historians would be whether or not a civilization in decline was aware that it was declining; and if not, what did they think was going on?

But perhaps all is not lost.  The Army just announced their new recruiting motto, which has apparently tested quite well:  "Army Strong."

----- 

As an aside, the "Army Strong" campaign was created by the Army's new advertising firm, McCann Erikson.   They're responsible for the MasterCard "priceless/there are some things money can't buy" campaign. Of course, this cost the Army one billion dollars. 

I'll go back to psychiatry now.