{"id":12567,"date":"2009-06-25T18:52:37","date_gmt":"2009-06-25T18:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2009\/06\/25\/the-medical-industrial-complex-part-ii\/"},"modified":"2009-06-25T18:52:37","modified_gmt":"2009-06-25T18:52:37","slug":"the-medical-industrial-complex-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2009\/06\/25\/the-medical-industrial-complex-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"The Medical-Industrial Complex, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part I is <\/font>here<\/font><\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n

The liberal-leftist animus against corporations is undoubtedly excessive, as is their pollyannish trust in Big Government solutions to every problem under the sun; but this should not blind us to corporate irresponsibility especially when the corporate types work hand-in-hand with liberals to 'medicalize' the ordinary difficulties of life.<\/font><\/p>\n

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It is a strange and unholy alliance. Libs and lefties often believe in such nonsense as that reality is a social construct. Apparently, they think that reality is malleable and can be made up as one goes along. So one can make up diseases and conditions like <\/font>social anxiety disorder<\/font><\/a>. Once the disease has been invented, the corporate types can turn a profit from it by selling people drugs they don't need and whose side- and long-term effects are unknown. <\/font><\/p>\n

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A certain uneasiness in social situations, especially new social situations, is not uncommon and part of life. It is not unusual to feel nervous during a job interview or while presenting a paper at a conference. I myself found the latter extremely difficult at first. But I forced myself to do it and eventually I got to the point where I could deliver a paper without much difficulty. But the medicalization of such a common problem is as unwarranted as is the taking of drugs for it.<\/font><\/p>\n

A little 'cognitive therapy' helps. You analyze the situation rationally and try to determine whether there are any reasons to be anxious. Seeing that there are none, you confront your fears and master them. I believe it was Emerson who wrote, "Every day, master a fear." Excellent advice. In the words of an obscure poet:<\/font><\/p>\n

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Don't take the easy way out and pop a pill
Use your intellect and exercise your will. <\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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If you click on the above link, a link I found at random during a Google search — indeed the first site I looked at — you will find that the drug Levitra is being pitched as the solution. It is obvious what is going on here. The big pharmaceutical companies, having made a killing selling drugs like Viagra for male erectile dysfunction are now eager to horn in on the corresponding distaff market, if you will pardon the pun.<\/font><\/p>\n

And let's not leave out <\/font>premenstrual dysphoric disorder<\/font><\/a>. There are plenty of others besides.<\/font><\/p>\n

Don't misunderstand me. I am not claiming that there are no genuine medical conditions in the general vicinity of these probably bogus conditions. What I am saying is that one ought to be skeptical when liberal excuse-finders and reality-deniers team up with greedy corporate types.  Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us of the military-industrial complex.  We should also beware of the medical-industrial complex.<\/font><\/p>\n

Further reading: Ray Moynihan, <\/font>The Selling of Sickness<\/font><\/a>. I saw this fellow on C-Span and he appears to be credible. <\/font><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part I is here. The liberal-leftist animus against corporations is undoubtedly excessive, as is their pollyannish trust in Big Government solutions to every problem under the sun; but this should not blind us to corporate irresponsibility especially when the corporate types work hand-in-hand with liberals to 'medicalize' the ordinary difficulties of life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,163],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-leftism-and-political-correctness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Then there is <\/font>female sexual dysfunction<\/font><\/a>. "Female Sexual dysfunction is an age-related, progressive and highly prevalent problem affecting nearly 30-50 percent<\/strong> of women globally." (Emphasis added.) Do you believe that? I'm rather skeptical myself, but of course it depends on exactly how 'female sexual dysfunction' is defined. <\/font><\/p>\n