Comments on “How Shy Became Sick” by Deanna Isaacs, cover story, February 14

Jeremy:

Yes, the psychiatric industry is largely profit driven, and the new DSM is going to make it even easier for certain entities to cash in on a whole host of new disorders.

If you are leery of the current standard of fixing all types of these so-called mental dis­orders with medication, you owe it to yourself to learn a little more about the dubious benefits of the “talking methods” as well. Some of the best books on this subject include these titles: (1) House of Cards: Psychology and Psychotherapy Built on Myth by Robyn Dawes; (2) Against Therapy: Emotional Tyranny and the Myth of Psychological Healing by Jeffrey Masson; as well as Final Analysis: The Making and Unmaking of a Psychoanalyst, also by J. Masson.

D:

Maybe the problem is that these things are not “medical” issues. They may be problems in living, which include moral problems, and problems related to fulfillment (social phobia is but one good example). This is not what we should go to physicians for—we go to them to treat identifiable physical ailments. There are NO identifiable psychiatric ailments in this way; their existence in the medical sense is purely a metaphor that has become reified.

That being said, the polemics by Dawes and Masson tend to ignore the hundreds of randomized controlled clinical trials that demonstrate that psychotherapy generally (not always, but the vast majority of the time) helps people with their problems, no matter what we label them or how we categorize them.

Surely we agree that people have problems and can be helped, right?

Jeremy:

Well, I certainly don’t deny that people have problems and that they are entitled to help, but these authors, in particular Dawes, do not ignore the controlled trials that purportedly demonstrate that psychotherapy is effective. Dawes’s polemic is an exhaustive evidence-based refutation of therapy as practiced by a majority of psychotherapists and psychologists. He is not opposed to therapy (as is Masson), and actually cites a few models, such as the Oregon Social Learning Center that are (were) effective. They applied behavioral and cognitive therapy techniques—NOT medication and not psychotherapy. And besides, even if these hundreds of controlled, randomized clinical trials demonstrate that psychotherapy helps, there is no physiological evidence to support these claims of efficacy other than a person’s subjective response, which would then be similar to the argument made by advocates of medication therapy, who could also say, “Well, most people say it helps them, so what’s the harm.” And I’m sure those same advocates have some scientific literature to support their claims.

Correction

In “How Shy Became Sick” (February 14), I said 67 million Americans had taken Paxil. I should have reported that author Christopher Lane says 67 million Americans have been prescribed SSRIs; 18.5 million of them got Paxil. Sorry for the error.

Deanna Isaacs

Of All the Lawyers in the World . . .

Sorry I went ahead and told people what you said about how you killed the guy with the shotgun and Alton Logan didn’t [“The Greater of Two Evils” by Michael Miner, Hot Type, January 31]. And you know what? I’m even sorry I told you I was your lawyer in the first place, that anything you told me would be confidential. That was sort of a dirty trick, I guess. How was I to know breaking my silence so many years later would lead them to all that other evidence? (How they got the eyewitnesses to say they’d made a mistake identifying Logan, that in fact you were the guy, I had no idea they’d do that.) I just never thought they’d indict you and make you go to trial. And I’m really, really, really sorry you got sentenced to death. But keeping our little secret got harder and harder for me, knowing an innocent man was in prison. It just shouldn’t be that way. It started to weigh on me to the point where I almost couldn’t stand it, and—hey—well, a guy’s gotta sleep, right? I’m sure you’ll understand. (Besides, a lot of people were going to get mad at me if I didn’t betray you. I hate criticism anyway, and they had me outnumbered.)

Jamie Kunz

Michael Miner replies:

Jamie Kunz is supplying a rationale for why he and three other lawyers didn’t reveal that an innocent man, Alton Logan, was in prison serving life for a murder that Andrew Wilson, Kunz’s client, had committed. Kunz’s imaginary letter to Wilson certainly underlines the difficult position he found himself in, given his obligations to Wilson. Perhaps Kunz should address his next imaginary soliloquy to Logan, who is still insisting on his innocence and trying to get out of prison. If Kunz could persuade Logan he did the right thing maybe he’d persuade me.

Tough Customers

Comments on “Bye-Bye Bricks and Mortar” by Heather Kenny, Our Town, February 14

Carter:

I feel for anyone losing a business they poured their blood, sweat & tears into, but it is a bit ironic—what of the mom and pop shops that got run out of Wicker Park due to the same forces that support boutiques?

Mike Masters:

Andersonville has been actively preventing corporate chains from opening there for decades. They have inspired international studies on how the money spent in this type of community, stays in the community. Join or create a neighborhood council, shop local, get involved. Efficiency is stripping away our identity, fight back. Andersonville.org.

Milo Minderbinder:

I agree with the “buy local” ethic, but let’s apply it to things like books and records, food (been to your local butcher or baker lately?), and things that actually improve quality of life. Adorable little boutiques (at least in my experience) do little but chase out useful businesses and raise rents, while selling the most useless merchandise imaginable.

Send a letter to the editor.