Posted by finelinebob on September 11, 2006, at 2:58:36
In reply to internet and the manufacture of madness..., posted by Estella on September 11, 2006, at 1:06:07
> 'A Madness for Identity: Psychiatric Labels, Consumer Autonomy, and the Perils of the Internet'
Oh Noessss!!!!11!11!11one!1!!
The iPatients have taken control of the eSylum!!
If those researchers want to investigate the "manufacture of madness", then they need to look to pharmaceutical advertising and HMO's preference for pills -- the HMOs win because the don't have to pay whiny therapists who expect to be respected (HMOs: "LOL! As if there are enough of you for us to care!"), Pharmas win because they get paid anyway and HMOs again because the HMOs have consumers over a barrel when it comes to co-pays (HMOs: "ROFL!! 'The customer is always right'?! Our execs need new Audis, gotta keep up with the GlaxoSmithKlines!!").
"They also present complex ethical challenges for researchers"? Yep, we can't be objectified, dehumanized, enumerated and turned into statistics so easily now, can we?
"the Internet may be the nesting ground for a new kind of identity disturbance"? Yep. Sounds like a little democratization of their "subject pool" is causing some psychiatrict professionals to develop severe cases of autonophobia.
What does it say about these authors when they refer to us as "consumers"?
So, "Many sufferers are reticent to relinquish their iatrogenic identity in the face of official label change; some actively resist it." We don't know what's happening to us, a doctor gives us a label, we do some research and perhaps find others like us because of that label. And these researchers find it surprising we don't want to discard this identity when the labels may have seemed arbitrary in the first place but the people we find are real? Sure, some of these new labels may make more sense, but then again how long were we told the SSRIs weren't responsible for any sort of sexual dysfunction?
These problems exist within the research community, not our community. If they can't figure out how to "hit a moving target", then they'd better learn their jobs better.
poster:finelinebob
thread:684913
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060901/msgs/684929.html