Thursday, September 20, 2012

Brain Eating Zombie of the Day

Tanya Marie Luhrmann

Beyond the Brain
In the 1990s, scientists declared that schizophrenia and other psychiatric illnesses were pure brain disorders that would eventually yield to drugs. Now they are recognizing that social factors are among the causes, and must be part of the cure.
Now I could go through this entire rambling article and point out all her errors in logic, but it all boils down to this:
Just because the genetic hypothesis hasn't produced direct results and the psychoactive drug approach hasn't worked, and there are clearly numerous interacting factors involved- DOES NOT mean that social events affect the underlying pathology or that psychotherapy is a valid treatment.   Especially not bullshit like teaching sick people to talk to their voices... Good grief, that is merely evidence of how frakkin desperate and crazy therapists are.  Wasting tormented peoples' time and brain cells to justify their own existence.

This argument is fallacious.   Just because she doesn't know the answer doesn't mean the psychosomatic hypothesis is credible.  There are other biomechanical options.  Like infection.
Scientists shocked to find antibiotics alleviate symptoms of schizophrenia

(seriously, what is it about Stanford that produces biased research that ignores reality?)