Here’s a sweet comeuppance of a very vocal critic of alternative medicine
I have to admit, there are few things I find more satisfying than seeing a very vocal, self-righteous critic of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) inadvertently reveal a big soft spot of inconsistency.
The word “hypocrite” might be a bit too strong here, so I’ll play nice and just call it a glaring contradiction.
I recently mentioned a magazine article titled “The Triumph of New-Age Medicine” that appeared in “The Atlantic” last summer. I hate to see the phrase “new-age” used to describe CAM. But in the end that’s a small gripe because the article, by David H. Freedman, lays out an excellent overview of alternative medicine.
Freedman balances his CAM discussion against the views of a skeptic, who shows up throughout the article. That’s Steven Salzberg, Ph.D. — the Director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the University of Maryland.
Dr. Salzberg doesn’t hold back, claiming that studies show alternative medicine doesn’t work. He calls CAM “cleverly marketed, dangerous quackery.” And Freedman calls him “one of the angriest voices attacking the field.”
Here’s a sample: “These people have been trying to prove their alternative treatments work for years, and they can’t do it. But they won’t admit it and move on.”
It’s so simple, isn’t it? Dr. Salzberg has decided CAM is useless, so in spite of the millions of patients who have benefited from safe CAM treatments, we should all just pack it in.
Fortunately, Freedman balances Salzberg’s rigidly negative views with insights from dedicated CAM researchers and practitioners who witness the valuable results of their work every day.
Then something surprising happens…
Toward the end of the article, Freedman notes that Salzberg doesn’t include hypnosis therapy in his long list of fraudulent alternative medicine practices. Why? Salzberg guesses it’s because his father used it in his practice as an academic clinical psychologist.
And the payoff: Salzberg admits that he hasn’t looked very closely at hypnosis studies. But he says that’s not necessary because, “I believe it works.”
Ah! Just sit back and savor that one…
Sources:
“The Triumph of New-Age Medicine” David H. Freedman, The Atlantic, July/August 2011, theatlantic.com
