Ben Goldacre is in the business of challenging quackery. In one recent post of his, he takes on the braingym movement. It’s a wonderful read, and I invite all of you to saunter on on over and digest what he has to say.
Mister Misery is a mental health website with a particular focus on depression, anxiety, and stress. We often cover conditions that tie into the preceding big three mental states — things like diabetes, heart disorders, anorexia, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, and the likes. Though this site isn’t necessarily focused on debunking quackery, it’s important to cover the topic now and then.
Human beings are, as a rule, a gullible species. We gloss over scientific studies while placing a premium on testimonials, we place faith in products and therapies that have little proof to back them up, and we often believe nonsense despite a mountain of overwhelming evidence disproving our pet theories and causes.
We aim to provide a balanced view on this website. We offer no guarantees about anything covered on Mister Misery, and in some cases we’re fairly skeptical about some of the therapies, studies, and theories that we present to our readers. We write under the assumption that our readers take everything they read with a grain of salt, and that they always explore multiple arguments before deciding on whether they agree with whatever it is they’ve read on this site.
People who are depressed are often in a tight spot, which leaves them open to predatory practices of quacks and charlatans. It’s important for them to be very careful with the treatments they take on. For example, personally, I’ve had excellent success with certain NLP exercises, but I’m very aware that those exercises have never been the subject of rigorous scientific study. As a whole, NLP has fared poorly under scientific scrutiny. Frankly, there’s a strong argument to be made against the quality and scope of the studies that have been done, but that doesn’t make up for the fact that there is still, as of yet, limited scientific evidence in favor of NLP as a form of therapy.
I think there’s very little harm in people trying certain NLP exercises on their own — in my case, it helped. However, I would strongly caution people against spending thousands of dollars on weekend NLP seminars. If, against their better judgment, they decided to take those seminars, I’d ask them to be very careful not to sign up with a snake-oil instructor. Some NLP teachers are trained psychologists with University backgrounds, but others are simply quacks preying on the weak for a quick buck.
I use NLP as an example of a controversial therapeutic treatment that we’ve covered on this blog. It’s a field that is full of quackery, though I do believe that buried under the bullshit, there’s some solid things it has to offer the world. However, there’s still plenty of bullshit to dig through before we find any gold. That requires a discerning mind that approaches new information from a variety of angles.
We expect our readers to practice a certain cautious skepticism, even when they assume it’s unnecessary. We’d rather that they be safe then sorry. Reading a site like Goldacre’s is a step in the right direction.
A healthy skepticism is an excellent antidote to the gullible tendencies that are part and parcel of human nature. The more reluctant you are to buy into what you read, the more insistent you are on exhaustively researching the pros and cons of the therapeutic treatments you are considering, the less likely you are to be taken advantage of by unscrupulous snake oil peddlers.