Technology for 2000, as imagined in 1910:

via Copyranter.

Now THIS is how you own a DeLorean
.

Congratulations Paras! I like the phrase "terminal assessment of knowledge and skills" ... although, I sincerely hope that doctoring isn't going to kill you.


And Beck, the person circled, speaking of doctors, is Matt Smith, dressed in the tweed suit and bow tie (because bow ties are cool) of the current incarnation of The Doctor. I still can't believe it took me so long to cotton on to this reincarnation of the series. I always though K-9 was lame, and as a result didn't watch it while growing up, but this new series is pretty awesome. ... particularly the current cliffhanger. (Thanks Albert for the Christmastime exposure to the newest Doctor!)

Oh, and Albert, I agree, he IS quirky etc. in real life, to the same extent as the Doctor, but in a different way... a colourful socks and mickey mouse t-shirt kind of way, apparently... not so much bow ties.

Congratualtions Par!

So easy to be ranty.... sigh.

An interesting (but comprehensive) view is given in the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. And yes, I do need a new hobby. I encourage any interested parties to refer to the original article, which is quite well written.

"many theorists have argued that our current diagnostic categories, as compiled into DSM-IV-T-R (American Psychiatric Association 2000), are faulty because they are derived from observable variables rather than underlying physical pathologies. These theorists are sceptical about many existing psychiatric diagnoses, and not just on empirical grounds; they see DSM diagnoses as collections of symptoms rather seeing them as medicine understands diseases—in terms of destructive processes realized in bodily tissues. Genuine mental illnesses, on this view, are not just sets of co-occurring symptoms but destructive processes taking place in biological systems......But we often know very little about the mental illnesses that psychiatrists study, and much explanation in psychiatry involves case studies or narrative accounts that cite the characteristics of a disorder, rather than underlying systems."

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/psychiatry/

Which is to say that I agree with Par that mental illnesses are better described as syndromes (which don't presuppose a known underlying cause) than as diseases. While certain symptoms cluster together, we can't necessarily say why they do, or by what mechanism they occur. The backwards extrapolation from an effective treatment (ie. an antidepressant) to assuming the basic pathophysiology of a disease is troublesome and prone to logical error.

My last word on this subject.

And, many congratulations Dr. P. Welcome to the world of gainful employment.

Paras! Yeah!!!

Alison, I'm so out of the loop, I don't know who that is in the picture, please inform!

Al, you like big bots

that is all.

Or he would...

I hear he is quirky as hell in real life as he is on the show.

I have a comment in this medicine/psychology symptom/cause debate, but it keeps coming out ranty. ... so I'm holding off for now.

Instead, I have this.

Do you think he was edited in, or actually attending?
I can't picture him wearing the bow tie & tweed jacket of his own volition.

That's funny that the part Matt liked the most was the part I wanted to disagree with, if only slightly and from perhaps a different angle.

I think it's a little vague to describe all psychiatric diagnoses as symptoms rather than syndromes. For example, hallucinations are a symptom and, though we initially treat them with similar medications regardless of the cause, the constellation of symptoms around it leads us to elucidate a cause and helps us, ultimately, treat it.

Rather than saying that's unique to psychiatry, however, I'd suggest that's important in all of medicine. Dr., er, Riviera is right in that we ought to treat suffering, not diseases. It should not matter so much that your pain is caused by the inflammation of your appendix secondary to distention and ischemia; it doesn't change the fact that someone should try to alleviate your pain. At the same time, though, treating the cause of pain, if possible, is crucial as well.

I think medicine has built up this culture of diagnoses, and that has extended to society as a whole. People become attached to their diagnoses, because "pain" or "nausea" is a vague feeling, but a "herniated disc" or "irritable bowel syndrome" is a tangible thing you can attribute it to. I'd also suggest that's a bug, rather than a feature, and that there are too many implications for diagnoses beyond guiding best treatment -- a problem that's particularly apparent when it comes to mental illnesses.

In any case, I'm grateful to everyone's input about this. My experiences with mental health prior to going into medicine were minimal at best, so my opinion is based purely on the experience from the professional side of things. It's interesting to hear what other people think about on the same topic from their own experiences. My thanks to you all for that.