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Editorial Note: This piece was first submitted to the Journal of Mental Health in 1997 and two other journals later that year - with Marie Savage and Phil Thomas as co-authors. The reviewers were affronted - one figured mental health was likely no worse than the rest of medicine. Unable to find a home, it migrated to become a chapter in the third edition of Psychiatric Drugs … [Read more...] about Dr Munchausen: Pharmacophile

Editorial Note: This is the sixth in a Dr Munchausen series of posts. It was originally going to be entitled 'Dr Munchausen joins your local Hospital Board'. Crash & Holocaust denialism In JG Ballard's novel Crash, covered in the last post, we slip from the solid world in which we think we move to a dreamworld - the dreamworld in which we are now living. In this … [Read more...] about Doctor Munchausen: Judge & Jury

Editorial Note: This is the fifth in a series of Doctor Munchausen posts that include: Dr Munchausen, I presume Dying for a Cure Dear Luise Father Munchausen They followed a Sense about Science series of posts that included: Sense about Science: Follow the Rhetoric Sense about Science: First Admit no Harm Sense about Science: Follow the Lawsuit … [Read more...] about Doctor Munchausen and Sense About Science

Editorial Note: This is the fourth of seven Doctor Munchausen posts - Doctor Munchausen, I presume, Dying for a Cure, Dear Louise and the forthcoming Doctor Munchausen as a Sense about Science Trustee, and Doctor Munchausen Joins your local Hospital Board. I’ve had some criticism of the recent Doctor Munchausen posts. They’re not fair on doctors. Many people have told me of … [Read more...] about Father Munchausen, I Presume!

Editorial Note: This is a third post in the six post Doctor Munchausen series. See Doctor Munchausen, I Presume and Dying for a Cure. A variation on this post first featured on RxISK.org some months ago. Dear Luise by Dorrit Cato Christensen is one of most extraordinary books about healthcare ever written. Medical books are usually about great discoveries, great endurance, … [Read more...] about Doctor Munchausen: Dear Luise

Editorial Note: This is the second in a Doctor Munchausen series of posts - meditations on the fact that medicine is likely the place where the greatest amount of abuse on earth happens - but no-one notices and no-one intervenes. The post below comes from the foreword to Dying for a Cure, Rebekah Beddoe's book on what happened her when she fell into the clutches of a doctor. … [Read more...] about Doctor Munchausen: Dying for a Cure

Editorial note: As Britain descends into an orgy of handwringing about the abuse of vulnerable people, this is the first of several posts to tackle the issue. In 2000 when I gave a lecture on Psychopharmacology and the Government of the Self at the invitation of the University of Toronto, I ran into a problem. In the public domain our shared difficulties were because of this … [Read more...] about Doctor Munchausen I Presume!

Editorial Note: This is a Coda to the four posts about Sense about Science and AllTrials - Follow the Rhetoric, First Admit no Harm, Follow the Lawsuit & Follow the Patient. The last post ended on this note: Over 18 months ago, RxISK attempted to open up a debate on the ambiguities and conflicts at its heart. Doing what it does, could it operate as a business in the … [Read more...] about We are the Ninety Nine Percent

Editorial Note: This is the fourth of four posts about the links between Sense about Science and AllTrials. The first was Follow the Rhetoric. The Second was First Admit no Harm. The third was Follow the Lawsuit. The simple act of defining doctors or patients concerned about adverse events as “critics” is a rhetorical stroke that marginalizes concerns - makes you a one … [Read more...] about Sense about Science: Follow the Patient