Denis:

> >
> >It has always been my opinion that Burger did not start his reflection from
> scratch, or from a red cabbage  as recounted in his book. Anybody whith
> little exposure to philosophy or history of ideas  knows that it is
> impossible to write "La guerre du cru" with  as little reading as listed  at
> the end of the book. What happened to the rest of the references  ?  Since
> all or nearly all the quotations refer to first hand reports and original
> research , and not reports on  reports on other people's research, one may
> guess that the work accomplished to put up "La guerre du cru" has been
> tremendous . Where does this appear in the bibio ? And what about the other
> people involved in finding out the necessary  references ? Did  BURGER look
> into this prime research litterature all  by himself  ? If he did, he didn't
> pick up the right books by chance.
>
>
> >My conviction that Burger could not have overcome  two first category
> paradigms  with his own wit and reasoning power, however sharp these might
> be,  started to emerge  after several short discussions with him on
> unrelated topics. I had expected to meet a man of overflowing  culture,
> ready to share the tale of  his intellectual  victories .  I found none of
> that . ON the contrary. The gap between the book and the man was the first
> thing which set me thinking about the actual origin of Burger's theories.
>


My comments will be even more speculative than yours, since I have
never met the man... However, many theories have been discovered by
past geniuses, so why not instinctotherapy as well? Of course, that
doesn't mean he created it "ex nihilo", only God has the ability to do
that. Every major scientific discovery has an historical
background. Einstein didn't find the "Lorentz transformations" (the
formulas expressing the change of space-time coordinates), but his
genius consisted in his understanding of the physical meaning of these
formulas.


The fact that Burger says his theory was "born in a cabbage" still adds to
the legend he has built. Indeed, since Archimedes (with his "eureka")
and Newton (with the story of the apple), the genesis of the major
scientific discoveries are considered among the public as almost
miraculous, but a thorough analysis shows that the same patterns always
occur (see for instance "Matiere a pensee", by J.P. Changeux & A. Connes):

1) A problem comes to the mind of the scientist. He thinks about it, but he
is unable to find the solution.
2) "incubation": his mind doesn't focus anymore on the subject, but keeps
wandering around related and unrelated topics. Meanwhile, his unconscious
mind probably works in the background. Before he made his major findings,
Einstein had thought during 10 years about:
  -what would happen if one tried to chase a ray of light?
  -what does a man feel when he is in an elevator and the cable breaks?
3) Illumination ("eureka"): intuition of the correct answer.
4) Then follow hours of hard work ("genius is 1% inspiration and 99%
perspiration", as someone said).


Now, we should point out that a "genius" needn't be someone particularly
brilliant in everyday's life: Einstein wasn't exceptional as a student.
But the context may be important: Einstein spoke for the first time at
4 years old, that's why he kept some naiveté concerning notions that
adults consider as "obvious", such as time and space. Descartes said
his famous "cogito, ergo sum" after months of isolation, Buddha was
enlightened after years far from human civilization, same thing for
Moise, etc.


But Newton's genius goes far beyond a trivial story of apples: he just
discovered _everything_ in classical mechanics: the three fundamental
laws, the law of gravity; he also developed integral and differential
calculus... Whereas Burger has only been able to state a few (bold, but
still simple) ideas:

1) The feeding instinct is related to taste change
2) Instinct does not work with cooked food because humans have not yet
adapted to culinary arts.
3) Wheat and milk are not "original" foods.
4) RAF is useful, and probably necessary.
5) Abnormal molecules cause auto-immune diseases.
6) Beneficial Microbe Theory: under natural conditions, the purpose of
the immune system is to eliminate abnormal molecules, not viruses.



Since a theory cannot be created "ab nihilo", what could be the historical
and personal backgrounds of Burger's discovery?

1) He had been on a strict diet for many years (so he was certainly aware
of all the ideas about dietetics of his time); however, he got a cancer
(hence his frustration).
2) Studies had been made concerning energy regulation and feeding behaviour
(but I don't know if he was aware of that).
3) Many dieteticians had stressed on the value of raw food.
4) He was concerned about the fact that cooking leads to overeating. His
mother was an excellent cook. Also, remember the anecdote about spaghetti
(before he discovered instincto, he had decided with his wife to eat them
without sauce or butter, because they were aware that seasoning made their
meals too attractive; however, they were unable to swallow their pasta).
5) He had a revenge to take against dairy (remember the huge amounts of
yoghurt he had ingested prior to his cancer).
6) Shelton already considered that illnesses aren't due to microbes
but to toxemia.
7) The Essene Gospel of Peace contains very similar ideas (except
concerning dairy and wheat). Burger claims he read it only _after_ the
discovery of instinctotherapy, but who knows to what extent his theory
has been influenced by that book?



Other remarks:

1) His book "La guerre du cru" was written after 20 years of trials and
errors. At the same time (during the 70's), many experiments about
preferences and aversions were carried out. It is quite possible that
he has gained a better understanding of his theory through his readings
and experiments.

2) The Socratic style of his book probably reflects the numerous
conferences and conversations he had had: the objections against his
theory had made him improve his arguments (but IMO some of them still
remain weak; this has already been discussed on this forum).
I hope this wasn't too boring...
Sorry for the English mistakes (I am doing my best).

Cheers,

Jean-Louis