On Fri, 09 May 2008 06:24:12 -0500, Ashley Moran <[log in to unmask]>  
wrote:
>
> Also I forgot to suggest to you Jim, have you read Not All In The Mind  
> by Richard Mackarness?  He was a doctor and was very successful at  
> treating mental illness with elimination diets.  ... Possibly something  
> like this will help someone who is still conned by medicine.

I don't know that this is so much a matter of being misinformed or conned  
as it is of fear.

Doctors spend years learning their trade, both in formal education and in  
clinical residency, as well as in their "practice".  So if only from the  
perspective of experience, they *are* experts compared to the average  
person.  So when you go to a doctor for treatment it is because you expect  
and believe that he is competent and able to treat your condition.  This  
is reinforced by the fact that, for the most part, people who go to the  
doctor *do* see their symptoms improve (regardless of whether the doctor  
caused the improvement, or just the passage of time, it's the *perception*  
that matters in this case).

So when someone tells you that your doctor is *wrong*, and that by  
extension *you* are wrong for having trusted him, the natural tendency is  
to resist.  Your belief in your doctor and your own judgement makes the  
alternative treatment, no matter how valid, the "outsider" position, and  
it is human nature to mistrust and fear the outsider position.  Add  
protective parenting instincts on top of it, and it only makes matters  
worse.

Education can overcome the fear, but you first have to be open to the  
possibility of education.  "Not All In The Mind" is enlightening, and  
short enough that maybe a person might read it even if they're already set  
in their position.  Maybe it would at least open the possibility of  
communication on the subject.

-- 
   Robert Kesterson
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