Old & New

“It is as foolish to chuck out the old as it is to fully embrace the new.”

My early guru was referring to the changes happening in the field of psychiatry as the new benzodiazepines were being introduced. How right he was and the same view could well apply to other branches of medicine as well as psychiatry today.

“There is much we can learn from the past. One may even save a life.” A Brief History of Time: CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation)
We have come full circle to some ancient Chinese CPR practice going as far back as 403 B.C.

Yet, the medical world has always been slow in accepting the new:

“His work on Cowpox vaccination in the prevention of Smallpox was met with hostile responses. The medical world that was dominated by London at the time could not accept that a country doctor had made such an important discovery. Jenner was publicly humiliated when he brought his findings to London. However, what he discovered could not be denied and eventually his discovery was accepted – a discovery that was to change the world.” Cuckoo & Medicine: Dissent & Heresy

Brian Martin said in his book “Dissent and heresy in medicine: models, methods and strategies”:

“An orthodoxy that draws on the full range of resources, namely which exercises unified domination, is incredibly difficult to challenge. Many challengers subscribe to the myth of scientific medicine as being based on open-minded examination of evidence, and thus handicap themselves, since in practice they are ignored or attacked”. Orthodoxy and Knowledge

Yet the so called new may indeed have its root in the very ancient, like ORT:

“I remember one of my professors telling us: the body survives dehydration much better than drowning. How right he was, as water intoxication is in a sense a kind of drowning.” Ancient Remedy: Modern Outlook

Back to psychiatry and the treatment of traumatic experiences:

“What was most surprising was how the group that had counselling generally faired worse, much worse than those without any counselling. The group that did best were the ones that drank, and drank a fair amount.” Trauma and Human Resilience

Back to psychiatric medication:

“Take one advice from me; think the opposite, the opposite to what the big Pharmas tell you. In pharmacology, shorter acting drugs are more addictive. That was what I learned in Medical School and is still true if you think carefully about it.”…… It Pays To Be A Taditionalist: Seroxat

In a most unlikely place I came by this:

“Ideas without precedent are generally looked upon with disfavor and men are shocked if their conceptions of an orderly world are challenged.” Bretz, J Harlen 1928. Dry Falls-Thinking Outside The Box

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