psychiatric publications and cure rates

Bertvan@aol.com
Wed, 17 Nov 1999 16:58:36 EST

Bertvan,

> I take 3 psychotropic medicines and they have made life much more
>livable. Perhaps you wouldn't accept that as a cure, but we don't have a
>cure for diabetes, either.. Does that make treatment of diabetes a hoax?

> I have attached the abstract from one article on OCD and medication.
>I used to take fluoxetine, but it stopped working, so I switched to
>fluvoxamine. I have used it since early 1996. We are considering switching
>to paroxetine. They haven't "cured" it, but have controlled it.

Jim Behnke
Hi Jim,

I don't for one moment think your condition is a hoax. While people seldom
"recover" from diabetes, recoveries from disorders of the mind are common.
You seem to be playing a roll in choosing your medications, and should be
free to choose your own treatment. My own belief is that your recovery will
depend more upon you than on any treatment. Orgainism are not just hunks of
matter interacting according to cause and effect laws. They have a
remarkable ability to repair themselves. I have no objection to your
particular psychiatric treatment, if you are satisfied. My objection is to
the myth that psychiatrists have some secret knowledge, unavailable to the
rest of us, about human motivation, thought processes and emotions.

I also object when Darwinists claim to have some secret knowledge,
unavailable to the rest of us, which should make them the best judges on
philosophical questions such as materialism, design, etc. I am not a
materialist. I have no objecting to others choosing such a philosophy. I do
object to having it imposed upon society as "scientific truth".

Bertvan