White Coat Underground

I’m not a psychiatrist, and I won’t guess what motivates someone like Doug Bremner. On his blog, he posted a picture showing the head of a cancer surgeon/researcher/blogger pasted onto a large beast. A little man is doing something to the beast.

An armchair psychiatrist might make silly suppositions based on the image of a little man bent over toward what looks like the genitalia of a large beast, but also like a little man eviscerating the beast with a big tool (which is not part of the little man…he’s just holding it). But images probably don’t mean anything anyway.

Bremner is a psychiatrist who on his blog takes the real problem of the corrupting influence of drug companies and elevates it to the One True Justification of all of his beliefs. Like many fanatics, he is always right, and anyone who dares to disagree with him is a murderous beast deserving of physical evisceration. I do wonder how someone becomes like Bremner. There is so much real corruption out there, and yet he is so angry, his thinking so muddled, that when someone presents evidence of his being wrong, he reacts as to an existential threat.

I’ve had plenty of people attack me on and off my blog. They’ve even been right from time to time. But I haven’t been tempted to connect their real name to various projects and accuse them being brainless shills of industry. Nor have I been tempted to post jejune but violent images of them on my blog. But Bremner does eventually use his words:

They start out by saying that I am against the drug industry, that there have been a lot of life saving drugs developed by the pharmaceutical industry, and that I am paranoidly positing a conspiracy amongst drug companies that does not exist. Well first of all as I have said many times before I don’t have anything against drug companies per se and I think there are a lot of medications that have benefits for certain people in certain situations. I am just advocating for the right of people to know the true risks and benefits of prescription medications and to be able to educate themselves and not just take the word of some “I am right” doctors. Which is what these guys look like. To me at least.

I would think that a psychiatrist could come up with a better construction than “paranoidly”, but anyway…

You see, Doug is just a poor, misunderstood guy trying to get the real scoop out to The People. He’s not “anti-drug company”, just pro truth. He even admits that some medications might be beneficial for some people sometimes (wow…that’s a lot of hedging). He accuses his detractors of being ignorant, with an immovable faith in their own opinions while demonstrating these very flaws.

It’s too bad, really. We need more voices speaking out against corporate abuses, people who can tell the difference between corruption and real science. Bremner just isn’t ready to play with the big kids.

Comments

#1 Dianne
September 24, 2009

some “I am right” doctors. Which is what these guys look like. To me at least.

I think that Dr. Bremner may be engaging in the mental defense mechanism known as “projection.”
#2 Orac
September 24, 2009

I must admit, I was so impressed by his maturity.

Be that as it may, the post Peter discusses showed that our collective opinion of him was spot on. Maybe I’ll have some fun. Or not. The dude just ain’t worth much effort if that’s the best he can come up with.
#3 Noadi
September 25, 2009

How did someone so immature as to use the phrase “Science Based Barfers” ever manage to get a psychology degree? I used to substitute teach and I saw plenty of middle school students come up with better insults than that. No one twice my age should make me want to send them to the principal’s office.

I might be able to overlook that sort of ridiculous behavior if he had a decent argument. Not even close.
#4 Alex
September 25, 2009

“He started out as the anonymous “Orac” but got revealed by some persistent cyber sleuthers.”

Wow, must’ve been some of them genius cyber sleuthers, ’cause that one was a toughie.
#5 bob
September 25, 2009

Are these clowns getting worse, or is it just me?
#6 PalMD
September 25, 2009

I have, more than once, been accused of hiding behind anonymity, despite the fact that I use a pseudonym and give clear links to my identity. People love the idea that if someone uses a pseudonym or anonymity it somehow invalidates their ideas, rather than dumbassitude doing the same.
#7 Orac
September 25, 2009

Wow, must’ve been some of them genius cyber sleuthers, ’cause that one was a toughie.

Especially since Orac basically told him who he was by posting the same thing on two different blogs, one as Orac and one under his real name. The dude’s a regular Sherlock Holmes and Greg House all rolled into one, he is.
#8 Joe
September 25, 2009

That is one strange blog.
#9 JohnV
September 25, 2009

True nuggets of awesomeness may be mined from the comments:

“why won’t i get a flu shot? well, my cousin’s wife got one years ago and she had a bad reaction. she spent a year in a wheelchair, paralyzed.”

lets see how this transfers:

why won’t i cross the street? well, my cousin’s wife did it one year ago and she was run over by a car. she spent a year in a wheelchair, paralyzed.
#10 Doug Bremner
September 29, 2009

Lol! I didn’t even see that little guy there until I read this.
#11 PalMD
September 29, 2009

The unconscious is a marvelous phenomenon.