Healing or Stealing? Medical Charlatans in the New Age

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Jean-Marie Abgrall
Healing or Stealing?
—
Medical Charlatans in the New Age


INTRODUCTION
After my last book was published — Soul Snatchers: The Mechanics of
Cults*— I received an avalanche of letters with specific questions or
asking me to shed some light on writers' personal quests that had
"turned out badly", leading to an experience with cults. This correspondence
brought me great quantities of new information on various
aspects of the cult phenomenon, particularly in France and Europe.
Reviewing all these cases, from many countries, I could not help
noticing that one of the principal avenues used by cults, one of their
best lures and selling points, was "patamedicine". (I have coined this
term on the basis of Alfred Jarry's "pataphysics", meaning the science of
imaginary solutions, a term that was also borrowed by Prof. Marcel Francis
Kahn.) Well-being seminars, symposiums on nontraditional medicine,
and alternative medicine treatment centers, together with palmreaders,
séances, and esoteric conferences, form a rich compost. The
cults of healing flourish in this fertile matrix, along with prayer groups
and healers of every ilk.

Certainly, not every practitioner of alternative (or natural) medicine is a cult recruiter,
 but the daily battle they wage against rationality
helps to widen the breach in the wall of doubt that separates suffering
individuals from ecstatic fools — devout believers in the revelation of
healing.

Taking my observations a little further, I was compelled to note
that some of my fellow professionals (some in good faith, some not)
were propagating ideas that are contrary to the minimum level of rationality
necessary to avoid the traps presented by all the ideological
inclinations of our end-of-millennium society. The problem is so immense
that the French National Order of Physicians has addressed it on
several occasions, weighing in with opinions or publishing recommendations,
generally to no avail.
Lastly, confronted with critical cases that made headlines in the
legal, forensic and mass media (The Order of the Solar Temple, for example),
I saw how many potentially dangerous social groups — coercive
cults, apocalyptic groups — recruited many of their followers in
doctors' offices. Patients go in, looking for a treatment that is "less aggressive"
than traditional medicine, and find themselves being initiated
into the enlightened program of a group that may well lead them to the
intensive care unit, if not to the morgue.

Having digested all this information, I was faced with a simple
choice: to keep quiet in order to avoid running up against public sensitivities,
or to denounce, loud and clear, how the world of "care-giving"
was going astray. Keeping quiet when one knows so much can only be
considered complicity; and in the present case it would amount to failure
to report a crime (or at least a misdemeanor), or even failure to
come to the assistance of someone in danger — which is itself a crime,
in France. It is hard to know where to point one's finger. Who is to
blame for this deviance — doctors, aides, healers, quacks, charlatans?
Where do we draw the line? The difference is slim between practitioners
of good faith and crooks, between those who "believe" in their
daily practice and those who are cynical con artists.

Even if one believes that homeopathy, as such, is not harmful, it is
still true that the time the patient spends pursuing such remedies is
definitively wasted, which means that he has less chance of finding a
real cure, especially since certain "fundamentalist" therapists willfully
divert the patient from so-called traditional medicine. Similarly, while
acupuncture cannot worsen a patient's condition (if the rules of asepsis
are respected), it can delay a proper diagnosis and treatment. Lastly,
while osteopathy practiced by a doctor or a qualified physical therapist
is a valuable tool, the same technique employed by a self-proclaimed
therapist who has only a superficial knowledge of anatomy can result
in permanent quadriplegia. As for the various charlatans of healthcare,
they are not satisfied to make pronouncements (the word charlatan
comes from Italian ciarlare, "to talk emphatically"), they very often divert
patients from what may be their only chances of survival.
I wrote this book to try to draw the attention of healthcare consumers
to the risks that are born whenever we entrust ourselves to any
individual whom we assume possesses a new knowledge, a new technique,
or even a new wisdom. "Mainstream" medicine certainly has its
weakness and its swindlers, but it behaves like a self-regulating organism
and the errors of the few are very often (not always) compensated
by the devotion and the knowledge of the others. Overall, its performance
has been "generally good", even if errors sometimes cause a stir the
forensic world and become top news stories.

For several decades, now, the medical consumer has been making
an effort to analyze and distinguish what is useful in this field, and
what is nonsense. He has tried to separate the wheat from the chaff,
but he is kept in a state of doubt by magazines and special interest
groups that profit by disseminating methods that at best are nutty, and
at worst are fatal.

In seeking to analyze the phenomenon of patamedicine, I thought
in all good faith that I would be able to explain this trend and to come
up with useful theories as to what has caused it. But the further I go,
the more I discover wild new fantasies, new gadgets, and new scams.
Some of these techniques come from historical sources, theories or instigators;
others were born of the delusion of a pseudo-enlightened individual,
a pseudo-Messiah or a pure crook.
This book sometimes looks like a laundry list, or the inventory of
an imaginary home improvement store with aisles full of instruments to
fix every conceivable problem. I have given many examples in this odd
bazaar, but lacking the energy to write several volumes, I had to leave
out innumerable practices that are quite as fraudulent as those that I
denounce here.

Without wishing to create a cheap work of exaggerated rationalism,
I wanted to erect a bulwark against the irrational that is parasiting
our society. This book is not intended as an act of hostility against all
the practitioners of alternative medicines, against all those who have
taken to heart the old proverb "primum non nocere", against all those who
provide care and comfort. But it is so intended against those who
thrive on disease and suffering, and who take advantage of them by exploiting
human credulity and everyone's desire to live. Seneca wrote:
"He who does not prevent a crime, when he can, encourages it" (The
Trojans).

http://www.torrentdownloads.net/searche ... eeebook.tk

[MikeWB]

Ever noticed how many advertisers on "patriot" radio are promoting "cancer cures"? And all these snake oil salesmen and "patriot" radio owners are profiting from sick and desperate. Despicable if you ask me.

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Yeah MikeWB,
I agree. I guess if people are on the "edge" they are willing to give anything a try.  It is sad that the business of good "health" is such a business either in the accepted Medical Practice or Alternative. Sad that people are willing to spend their last dime for a better and longer "life".  I guess that's why so many Jews flock to the field of Medical practice and Pharmacology.