Cuba approves, makes available lung cancer treatment

Cuban scientists said on Tuesday the first vaccine to extend lives of lung cancer patients has been approved by Cuban authorities for use and is available in the island’s hospitals. The drug, CimaVax EGF, has been shown to increase survival rates on average four to five months and much longer in some patients, they said in a news conference at Cuba’s Center of Molecular Immunology. In contrast to chemotherapy, the traditional treatment for lung cancer, they said CimaVax EGF has few side effects because it is a modified protein that attacks only cancer cells.

Dr. Rosenthal wrote, “… pessimism is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
When we expect nothing to change, we do nothing to create change .”

I think we’re nuts with change. We’re inculcated from the youngest age to be agents of change, change, change, change. Always something new, better, different … it’s the very essence of capitalism and the cornerstone of corporate success. On the pharma’ front, it’s: Try this drug; no, take that one; oh, here’s the latest; what, you have tried …?

We’re spinning ourselves silly from an overstoked ‘need’ for constant change. My mother took all sorts of drugs, always trying to change her moment-to-moment reactions to life and some long-term troubles she didn’t want to face and learn from. She was sick mentally and physically from the restlessness this caused in her soul. Three years ago, she finally made everything change at once by killing herself with anti-anxiety and anti-depressant pills.

Dr. Rosenthal, could you or someone consider writing about the insanity of excessive change in our lives, and the expectation - man, that’s marketing! - that this is normal? How can we focus on the precious few changes that matter when we’re so inundated from every direction?

Congratulations on a lucid, comprehensive and critical article. I hope you won’t mind me submitting a public call for testimonials from parents and teachers who used to be part of the diagnosing machine, but have since enlightened themselves.

I would also like to invite you personally to contribute to another project I am currently working on with two other researchers regarding the promotion of mental health/illness in North American culture. If you are interested, please contact me at mvardalos@laurentian.ca

Regards,
Marianne Vardalos Ph.D
Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology
Laurentian University @Georgian
University Partnerships Centre
1 Georgian Drive
Barrie, Ontario Canada
L4M 3X9
mvardalos@laurentian.ca

PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY

I am a sociologist firmly committed to the current anti-psychiatry movement seeking to expose ADHD, ADD, and most LDs, as fraudulent diseases.

Critics of the ADHD industry often site the ‘educator-parental-psychiatric-pharmaceutical complex’ as complicit in the drugging of normal, disease-free, children. Yet, parents and teachers participating in the diagnotistic process for these so-called diseases have the very best of intentions and are misguided and misinformed by the pro-psychiatry/pro-pharmaceutical culture they live in.

A critical sociological perspective sees the present ‘epidemic’ levels of reporting mental disorder in children and youth to be a purely cultural shift. As we transfer from modernity to post-modernity the culture shifts away from whole-body interaction with nature, toward mind-only interaction with technology. Simply put, the new economy requires a workforce of docile bodies, immobile from the neck down but from the neck up, able to consume multiple images, monitor split screens and interact with several media at one time. Children either incapable or unwilling to comply based on nothing more than their unique character are deemed ill, disordered, diseased or otherwise. And the label is fraudulently substantiated with ‘evidence’ from biology, genetics and neurology.

This project seeks to feature the testimonials of parents and teachers who enlightened themselves and refused to reproduce the prevalent practice of labeling kids as ill because they either can not or will not conform to the needs of the new techno-economy. This is an invitation to parents and teachers who once willingly participated in diagnosing children with ADHD-like symptoms but now that they are aware of the problems of the industry, have chosen instead to embrace those children’s special gifts and spirited personalities.

If you, your child or your students have a story to tell, please send it to me at: mvardalos@laurentian.ca

Please ensure stories are no longer than 3 pages (single spaced) in an MSword attachment or in the text of the email. You may or may not change the identity of the child if you wish.

DEADLINE: AUGUST 15th, 2008

Marianne Vardalos, Ph.D
Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology
Laurentian University @Georgian
University Partnerships Centre
1 Georgian Drive
Barrie, Ontario Canada
L4M 3X9
mvardalos@laurentian.ca

For details on the Human Condition Series please visit:
http://www.humanconditionseries.com

I think we’re nuts with change. We’re inculcated from the youngest age to be agents of change, change, change, change. Always something new, better, different … it’s the very essence of capitalism and the cornerstone of corporate success. On the pharma’ front, it’s: Try this drug; no, take that one; oh, here’s the latest; what, you have tried …?

We’re spinning ourselves silly from an overstoked ‘need’ for constant change. My mother took all sorts of drugs, always trying to change her moment-to-moment reactions to life and some long-term troubles she didn’t want to face and learn from. She was sick mentally and physically from the restlessness this caused in her soul. Three years ago, she finally made everything change at once by killing herself with anti-anxiety and anti-depressant pills.

Dr. Rosenthal, could you or someone consider writing about the insanity of excessive change in our lives, and the expectation - man, that’s marketing! - that this is normal? How can we focus on the precious few changes that matter when we’re so inundated from every direction?

It’s unfortunate that the discussions at Dissident Voice are so heavy on smart-ass comments. Don’t let it get you down.

I’m very fond of the ‘truth’ in that it, unlike fiction, has no limitations.

But I must agree with evie that it is not capitalism per se that contributes to mental illness. Every social system creates a hierarchy. Within each hierarchy, one must contend with the reality that many at the top deserve to be closer to the bottom, and that many at the bottom, in fact, many many more, deserve to be closer to the top. Yet people at the bottom must except the falsehood that they do not deserve the best life has to offer, and the people at the top know their position rests on deception and coercion, so they spend their lives looking over their shoulders.

In political science, there is something known as the “Iron Law of Oligarchy,” which says that no matter what type of system is put into place, all theoretical frameworks aside, the practical reality will be government by an oligarchy, that is, the few. Decisions ultimately rest with individuals, no matter what types of deliberative processes are put into place.

Anyway, life itself makes people crazy. The stress of survival, competition; these existed before modern capitalist society. In fact, historically, things have been much worse and less hopeful. What did Egyptian or Roman subjects have to hope for? What did nomadic tribes have to hope for? Mental illness has always been with us.

It is well-documented that both capitalist, socialist, and other societies label dissidents as “insane,” or perhaps, “possessed,” or “evil.” The use of language merely changes. In a capitalist society, those who want more cooperation and less competition are called pie-in-the-sky, utopian moonbats, whereas in a communist society, those who want the freedom to rise above their peers are labeled narcissistic, egomaniacal, inhumane, dangerous imperialists.

But I digress.

You may not agree with Susan Rosenthal’s political views, but you cannot deny the truth of what she says with regard to the problem. And you complain about the solution of “organizing,” or engaging in the political process. Many people know that there is a large scam component to psychiatry (Does anyone remember the advertisements for Paxil after 9/11? A perfect example of taking symptoms out of a social context.) But many people don’t. The people who know have a duty to make it known to those who don’t know. Organization results in more people knowing the nature of the beast. There are less victims that way. The less victims, the weaker the beast gets.

Personally, I think the best way to combat the excesses of our system, is to vigorously organize to the purpose of educating those who would be victimized on alternatives that deprive the victimizers of their victims. People should be channeled away from alienating, wealth-sucking, soul-less institutions like bars and clubs, where sober fraternization is frustrated by loud music and drugs, and into intimate areas people can get to know one another and do healthy, constructive things.

I think we’re already seeing a lot of that through the internet. People are learning of new alternatives to the old “play as work” model. It is now possible for people to meet with shared interests like never before.

But this does not stop those who profit from the destruction of others from counter-organizing. They cannot be expected to go quietly into the night. They are probably more aware than those who seek an escape of the necessity of sustaining their cruel apparatuses of control.

Since one good recommendation deserves another, I suggest you look for “Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory” (2002) by Ian Hacking. The author is a philosopher with a special interest in the history of psychiatry, and the book’s main topic is how from the late 19th century the psychological sciences of memory came to be surrogates for the spiritual and spiritualistic concepts to the soul. It treats the “recovered memory syndrome” in one chapter.

As for the psychological “professions,” well, P.T. Barnum had that figured out a long long time ago.
“There’s one born every minute, and two to take him” and “always leave them wanting more” are perhaps more fitting for Americans in this society of cheaters and the cheated.

We already know that feelings can be manipulated so that people will accept the unacceptable. Witness initial support for war against Iraq.

Fortunately, experience trumps feelings (in real life if not in lab experiments). In time, we return to our experience to guide us in what (and who) can be trusted and what (or who) cannot. And in organizations, this experience is accumulated much more quickly. Which is another reason to build organizations.

As the saying goes: you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time. But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Thank goodness for that!

“Those who do not agree are venoumous trolls.”

And yes, you just said in one sentence what it took Dr. Rosenthal to say in a few paragraphs, if in an ever so subtle way.

“The defenders of capitalism want us to accept things as they are, but we deserve much better! For some encouraging arguments about how ordinary people can work together to create real change, read POWER and Powerlessness.”

I like how you talk about how capitalism needs to be destroyed, and at the same time insert a shameless plug for your own book. Brilliant, really.

I did notice that Dr. Rosenthal decided to avoid addressing points that we have made, Evie, and instead opted to make character judgements and value calls on our persons.

Same goes for you as does Viktoria, Dr. Rosenthal - present an argument against our points or stop wasting our time. And, not everyone who disagrees with you (however aggressve my rhetorical style may appear to be) is a troll.

Unless, of course, you can’t come up with an argument.

BTW, is there a website for “International Health Workers for People Over Profit”?

The personal nature of these attacks is a definite turn-off. Subsequent readers are afraid to say anything in case they are also attacked. And that’s the point – to shut down discussion, or divert it into useless side-shows.

The internet is an open forum, so we can’t stop people from trolling sites like Dissident Voice looking for the opportunity to play whack-a-mole whenever anyone raises their head to criticize capitalism or offer any alternative.

Fortunately, those who post disparaging comments, that offer nothing of value, are NOT a representative sample of readers. (However, it can seem like they are, because of their unrelenting determination to dominate the discussion.)

What to do?

More of us need to speak up. However, not everyone can stomach the venom these people unleash when they are crossed (witness D.R.’s thoroughly nasty responses to Viktoria when she offered her opinion).

We need to build on-the-ground organizations, where those who are fighting for a better world can provide each other with real support, where actions speak louder than words, and where it is clear who is on the left and who is on the right.

We need to return to the issues raised by my article (and others on this site). That means ignoring the commentators who would divert us from this discussion, no matter how provocative their comments.

Human history is all about change. The defenders of capitalism want us to accept things as they are, but we deserve much better! For some encouraging arguments about how ordinary people can work together to create real change, read POWER and Powerlessness. The pdf is available at http://www.powerandpowerlessness.com

One final comment. Several people emailed me personally with respect to my article. They didn’t post their comments, and I don’t blame them, because they would have been attacked if they had.
Here are two of their comments:

“I just read your article on Dissident Voice “Mental illness or social sickness?” and I loved it. I really like the insights you have on this subject. It reminded me of Erich Fromm’s “The Sane Society”, in which he says that someone’s sickness is evidence of life and a reaction to living in a sick society.”

“I read your article “Mental Illness or Social Sickness?” I clearly agree that the mental health industry serves capitalism and is a method of social control. Psychology/psychiatry locates pathology within the individual and thereby helps to prevent social solutions to human distress. Thanks again for the article.”