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I agree diagnosing demonic possession would be unscientific. However, the role and attitude of the author seems ultimately helpful to his patients. If he can s
by benkuykendall 10y ago
I agree diagnosing demonic possession would be unscientific.
However, the role and attitude of the author seems ultimately helpful to his patients. If he can screen the suffers of diagnosable and treatable mental illnesses from the hard to explain cases, he can get proper treatment for the former group. By not denying the existence of demonic possession, he remains in the good graces of religious leaders, who are likely to bring him patients who otherwise would receive no psychiatric evaluation.
However, leaving the later group in the hands of exorcists is questionably moral. But if honestly, as he claims, there are cases where "the symptoms in question have no conceivable medical cause" then I guess there is little else he can do.
Of course, writing a click-bait article about diagnosing demonic possession is unprofessional of both Gallagher and the Washington Post.
- freditup 10y agoWhy do you think it's unprofessional for the Washington Post to publish this article? I personally don't see anything particularly wrong with it so I'm curious as to what you find unprofessional about it.
- benkuykendall 10y agoIs "PostEverything" their op-ed section? I guess in that case it's not too egregious. But for a news article, it seems much too quick to accept the occult without giving any specific evidence. > As I see it, the evidence for possession is like the evidence for George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware. In both cases, written historical accounts with numerous sound witnesses testify to their accuracy.
- freditup 10y agoThanks for the elaboration on your thinking - as far as I can tell, PostEverything is sort of an "anything-goes" op-ed section [0]. I fully agree that this would be a horrible "news" piece! [0]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/05/27/welcome-to-posteverything https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/05/27/...
- rdtsc 10y ago> he remains in the good graces of religious leaders, who are likely to bring him patients who otherwise would receive no psychiatric evaluation. That is a an interesting point. Far fetched idea, I can see maybe the author understanding and using this tactic in a way to get to patients who otherwise might be harmed. He will publicly proclaim his belief in such things, in order to be sure to get referals and calls from the clergy. Wonder though how it gets ballanced by his colegues not accepting of what he does and basically end up ridiculed or ostracized by that community.