I was delighted (and in awe) when I found, in my blog, a comment by Dr. Nassir Ghaemi. It gives my humble/local blog in Spanish a lot of kudos! He really doesn't know how much I appreciate his participation and in Spanish (whoa!). Unbelievable! These kind of things make me think that the gringos and the anglos (strictly speaking, David Healy is a Celt, not an anglo) are not beyond redemption! (I have just noticed that Nassir Ghaemi is originally from Persia , hardly a gringo, the same country that gave us Omar Khayyám - عمر خیام- and his Rubaiyat, which Jorge Luis Borges loved and his father translated into spanish).
Too many exclamation marks, for which I apologize profusely.
There is very little that I can say about Dr. Ghaemi's intervention in Spanish other than to thank him, deeply, for his contribution. Like most working psychiatrists who have to deal with the reality of devastating mental illnesses, I inevitably agree with him: there is a point in which mental illnesses are tangible, real, palpable things. His defense of philosophical realism à la Bunge , reminds me of the book that started the Science Wars , I am referring to: Higher superstition. The academic left and its quarrels with science. Ghaemi's prose shares with Gross and Levitt the same lucidity and clarity (see his: The concepts of psychiatry ). On the other hand, Healy is no friend of "Pomo" bullshit. If two thinkers of the magnitude of Healy and Ghaemi are at loggerheads concerning the reality of bipolar disorder/MDI (Kraepelin dixit), where are we, pedestrian psychiatrists, left?
I believe that one of the points that I was trying to illustrate in my blog, which is read by trainee psychiatrists in its majority (I think), was the importance of following two eminent and very distinguished psychiatrists have a dialogue/debate on very real problems and in real time. It was (and still is) thrilling to see how they crossed swords in a civilized and characteristically anglosaxon way (I am afraid that I am stereotyping both of them, but so be it). I was very sorry not to be able to see them with my friend (or at least she was whilst we both trained at St. George's Hospital & Medical School Psychiatric Rotation) Joanna Moncrieff the other day at the APA symposium.
¡Un saludo cariñoso desde Las Palmas, Islas Canarias!
NB: In the image "Earth could not answer nor the seas that mourn" (quatrain 75) - From Rubaiyat, Omar Khayyám - translated by E. Fitzgerald.
4 comentarios:
Felicidades, Maestro, su bitácora está en la cresta de la ola.
Un abrazo.
Congratulations¡¡¡. I think that nobody has disscuses that mental illness is something real, I think that the discussion is about if this real thing is biological and fisical or if it is a culture construct. Of course this division is absolutely artificial but I question myself where is the most immportant factor.
The DSM classifications are a cultural construct and this is something we must not forget.
Es decir: no obviemos que el humano vive en una realidad co-construida y simbólica. Pretender que las clasificaciones DSM la trascienden me parece un absurdo.
Reitero, felicidades, y un privilegio estar en esta "pomada".
Espero que mi inglés sea al menos tan comprensible como el español del Sr. Ghaemi
Felicidades lo primero; lo segundo: es muy curioso ver cómo en esto de la blogosfera realmente se llega a generar una cierta conectividad y difusión de ideas, y hacer que uno piense (yo de hecho todavía estoy pensando en la cuestión de marras; y con este nivel tardaré un rato en opinar algo decente). Aunque la mayoría de los que nos vamos cruzando creo que disfrutamos del blogueo como fin en sí mismo, es muy sanote ver que estimula la reflexión y el intercambio. Me alegro un montón, caballero: pío pío.
Gracias a Ud por este posting y por el resto de su blog. El internet puede ser un gran poder por lo bueno (y lo malo), y este tipo de discusion es una contribucion a todos.
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