As for my "rant" against conservative opponents of longevity research, I do not say that they (and Unamuno) don't have a valid point about how the knowledge of our mortality sometimes inspires our better natures. It does. I do say that fear of death doesn't just motivate us to "love one another." If it did, we mortals wouldn't be so busy killing each other. The point is certainly not to worship technology, but we must also not so fear it that we outlaw scientific research that threatens the fixed ideas of human nature and human destiny propounded by some more timid souls.
Finally, Gregory Tetrault doesn't dispute that severe calorie restriction may boost practitioners' life expectancies, but he is absolutely correct about the discomforts suffered by many who try it as a way to boost their longevity. The point of living is to enjoy it; just enduring is not enough.
Sins of the Fathers
Thomas Szasz's otherwise well-argued article, "Sins of the Fathers" (August/September), suggests that there is no difference in the level of obsession between sex offenders and others. He quotes a study showing that the rearrest record for sex offenders is 52 percent and for all other violent offenders it is 60 percent.
As someone who has reviewed scores of studies, I must say that one should not base their argument on just one, given that the data vary greatly from one study to another. Most important, if one relies on reoffense rates, rather than rearrest rates, the figure for sex abusers is much higher. The reason is that most sex offenses go unreported, as many are within families.
Amitai Etzioni
George Washington University
Washington, DC
I have often wondered why Thomas Szasz chose to make psychiatry his profession, when he is so clearly uninterested in human psychology. Rather, he seems to have made a career of proclaiming that the mentally ill, and those who care for them, are malingerers or worse. Amazingly, everyone but Szasz is always wrong and immoral.
As a child psychologist, I insist that my profession is characterized by professionals who are not only moral but caring, actively seeking not to bestow blame but to find a way to make things better. Out of their concern for morality, they seek to learn how children learn to be more moral people. A good example is the work of Fritz Redl and David Wineman in Children Who Hate and Controls From Within.
Psychoanalysis gave us the concept of the superego (conscience) and its more flexible successor, the rational, reality-centered ego. It is worth remembering that despite all efforts to discredit Freud and his followers, we have found no more comprehensive theory to guide us in raising children ready to accept, and not rebel against, thoughtful morality.
But I will agree with Szasz in his concern about nomenclature. In particular, the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders III-R contains diagnostic codes for both sadism and masochism. These are established concepts about which there is a wealth of literature. Yet both inexplicably disappear from DSM-IV. Are we to suppose that sadism and masochism are now to be considered normal? In these troubled times one may well wonder, but at any rate psychiatry owes us an explanation. Or does the APA agree with Szasz that if we can label a behavior "immoral" there is no need to understand it?
Perhaps we should convert all our psychiatric facilities to prisons? Oops, I forgot: We already did that.
Nancy Rader
Acton, MA
The deconstructing Myth of Mental Illness author has obviously never known a child molester: Of course they don't "treat themselves as if they had a disease before they are apprehended."
Szasz demonstrates the black-and-white thinking characteristic of an ineffective, know-it-all, "tolerant," politically correct meme -- rampant in academia -- in his inability to hold two thoughts at once: Sex with children is both a crime (immoral) and an illness requiring definition and treatment. It's both the ill person's problem and ours.
S. A. Silva
West Hollywood, CA
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time.
nfl jerseys|11.13.10 @ 12:51AM|#
xnvbn