Organized psychiatry and activism

“Were there really more than twice as many sessions on global warming as on obsessive compulsive disorder? Three times as many on immigration as on ADHD?” Blogger and medical professional Scott Alexander at the American Psychiatric Association convention: “If you want to model the APA, you could do worse than a giant firehose that takes in pharmaceutical company money at one end, and shoots lectures about social justice out the other.” [Slate Star Codex]

2 Comments

  • It isn’t enough for people that they do their job, live their life, and even help people, as Psychiatrists do. They want to be important. They want to save the world. This desire, while part of human nature, seems to be given free rein these days due to our wealth and comfort and the excuse of social justice issues. The problem is that it destroys the credibility of any profession–Social Justice viewpoints are simply not the ultimate truth and putting your professional rep on the line for this ideology is stupid and destructive.

  • Wouldn’t have been better for global warming if they cancelled the convention or just made it a webinar? All those people traveling to a psychiatric convention to talk about excess CO2 while they are making unnecessary CO2 emissions.

    Sounds crazy to me.