Philosophy can be detrimental to doctors

EDITOR—Bracken and Thomas raise the old chestnut of the Cartesian mind-body split and offer some formidable names (such as Wittgenstein and Heidegger) to address it.1 However, their suggestion that patients would benefit if more doctors studied the philosophy of mind is neither appealing nor evidence based.

Unfortunately the histories of psychiatry, philosophy, and politics are alike in that they have been dominated by radical intellectuals. The contribution of many of these has been largely to sow confusion and conflict. It is all too easy to believe that these intimidating authorities and their followers give weight to one's own views and justify preaching one's own prejudices. Bracken and Thomas are prone to this fault—they are the self proclaimed gurus of British “post-psychiatry,”2 named to imply that they have …