Difficult Choosing
Help me out here. I’m trying to pick a doc and have been looking at some websites around. Oh, here’s one. Among other things, his website says:
His personal interests include Buddhism, Hinduism, foreign languages,
philosophy (especially Existentialism and Eastern Thought), jazz, and
orchids.
And, here’s another guy:
In preventive medicine or while addressing acute or chronic problems, I
always try to practice evidence based medicine, where there is
compelling research to show a benefit to any treatment or test I
recommend.
Hmm. let’s see…"Eastern ‘Thought’" vs. "evidence based medicine." Such difficult choices.
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Oh you're completely full of shit.
I believe I would choose doc #2.
Actually, the Buddhists and Hindu traditions are way ahead of western medicine by centuries. Only now, Westerners are starting to catch up woth Eastern thought, not only in medicince, but physics, astronomy, philosophy, etc.
You'd be wise to go to a doctor with a belief in compassion and serving people, rather than selling drugs for his own profit.
Well John, never a dull moment with you. At any rate, understand that my post was more toungue-in-cheek than anything else.
I would point out that Dr #2 said "compelling research." Now, of course, I don't know what his standard of "compelling" is, but I'll grant the benefit of the doubt, for now.
1. I would caution you against the vulgar Objectivist notion that someome's aesthetics or hobbies necessarily have anything to do with their work performance. On that basis, I would supposedly be ill-advised to do business with anybody who takes the horrible Myers-Briggs personality test (based on the work of Carl Jung) seriously.
2. I would also caution against the fatal Objectivist mistake of taking at face value what people say about themselves. You should be asking yourself "Why is this person so insistently telling me how evidence based he is? Is there something he's trying to hide?" For instance, Doctor #1 may be so skilled and successful that he feels perfectly comfortable in admittting to a few mystical tendencies in his personal life; Doctor #2, on the other hand, may be a incompetent fraud who puts up a desperate facade of reason to hide the fact that most of his patients are in the boneyard. Then again, maybe the opposite is true. Deception abounds everywhere, except when it doesn't.
4. A doctor who sells drugs for his own profit is a bad thing, says a commentator. On the contrary! A friendly doctor who writes scrips for plenty of Adderall and Oxycodone is a very good thing indeed. A doctor like this sells something much more important than health – he provides the means to forget this awful world, at least for a while. (Alas, fear of the accursed DEA has intimidated many.)
Speaking strictly for myself, this sort of choice is not a problem. Hospitals are hideous places and doctors are best avoided. The metaphorical embrace of dear Courtney (adorable Angel of Death) is to be welcomed, not evaded.
But this is not for you, Nikolay. Better you should live and be happy.