[Sigia-l] You are 50% crazy

[Listera]

Well, may be worse, according to a new NIH study your tax dollars
underwrote:

"More than half of Americans will develop a mental illness at some point in
their lives, often beginning in childhood or adolescence, researchers have
found in a survey that experts say will have wide-ranging implications for
the practice of psychiatry."

NYT/Most Will Be Mentally Ill at Some Point, Study Says [req]
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/07/health/07mental.html?pagewanted=print>

Why am I bringing this up? I often rant and rave here about the knee-jerk
reaction that some people have to reach for "research" as innately as they
reach for a holy book whose scriptures then come to frame their outlook and
dominate their thinking. This is why I rail against bogus "definitions,"
"standards," "best practices," "research," etc.

"The earlier, less comprehensive surveys, which were published in 1984 and
1994 and which also found a high prevalence of mental illness, came under
attack on the ground that they defined mental illness too broadly. Now,
experts say, the new findings are sure to renew debate about whether mental
illness can be reliably distinguished from garden-variety emotional
struggles that are part of any life."

Of course, there's hope:

"On the other side are psychiatrists who say they believe that the estimates
are inflated. "Fifty percent of Americans mentally impaired - are you
kidding me?" said Dr. Paul McHugh, a professor of psychiatry at Johns
Hopkins University."

Is this any different than Jakob Nielsen declaring Flash to be 99% bad and
then getting a contract from Macromedia? Not much:

"The $20 million survey, which in addition to the government financing
received some support from health research foundations and pharmaceutical
companies..."

And the revolving door revolves...
 
Ziya
Nullius in Verba