PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine (Hardcover)

by Sally Satel (Author) "ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS MOMENTS in public health took place in 1854 in the Golden Square area of London, which was reeling from an..." (more)
Key Phrases: personal communication with the author, outpatient commitment, multicultural counselors, South Carolina, African American, New York City (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The shenanigans of political correctness have been well documented. But most people, even those who keep up with these debates, probably assume they're confined to the liberal arts, rather than the hard sciences. Think again. As Sally Satel shows in PC, M.D., political correctness has also infected the world of medicine and public health--with results that may actually threaten everybody's well-being. Satel begins her well-told exposé by describing the presumption of some health professionals that because the sickest people in society are also disproportionately the poorest, the practice of medicine must address matters of social justice. "Many public health experts see their mission literally as attacking the conditions that lead to poverty and alienation in the first place," writes Satel, a practicing psychiatrist who also lectures at the Yale University School of Medicine. Unfortunately, this has led to the diversion of resources away from what the medical profession does best--the treatment and prevention of injury and disease. "Worse, putting social justice at the core of the public health enterprise undermines individual accountability. People who practice unsafe sex, stick dirty needles in their vein or fail to take their TB medications daily are too often seen as passive victims of malign social forces," writes Satel.

She argues that radical feminism and race-obsessed multiculturalism have no place in the world of medicine. When they have actually secured a place, Satel shows the harm they've done. She describes, for instance, how the Harvard School of Public Health teaches that racial discrimination causes hypertension among African Americans--in short, racism makes you sick. Yet there's no credible evidence to back this startling claim, which may in fact divert attention away from behavioral steps that really can lower blood pressure. Satel has a wonderfully clever term for the people advancing this type of lab-jacket hokum: "indoctrinologist." Theirs is a political vocation, not a medical one. Satel is adept at countering their offensive, but her voice is a lonely one:

Indoctrinologists are making steady inroads in medicine. They now sit at the helm of professional associations and hold impressive posts in schools of public health. They have changed medical school admissions criteria and have infiltrated respected academic journals. They are outspoken, if not shrill, participants in many legislative and political debates.... Their numbers and influence are growing.

That's the bad news. The good news is that Satel has written an outstanding book that exposes their agenda. --John J. Miller

From Publishers Weekly
Yale psychiatrist Satel takes a hard, clinical look at how political correctness has infiltrated the world of medicine and finds that instead of providing the best care available, "injecting social justice into the mission of medicine diverts attention and resources from the effort to find ways of making everyone, regardless of race or sex, better off." By no means does she "defend the status quo," claims SatelAshe recognizes that the history of American medicine is not untarnished (e.g., the shameful 1932-1972 Tuskegee syphilis study). But she believes that though there may be problemsA"one of the most pressing [being] how to deliver health care to everyone affordably"Asexism and racism are not the ugly, systemic issues that the "indoctrinologists" claim them to be. (These indoctrinologists, she says, are found in the academy, whose researchers may produce "second-rate clinical studies"; at the medical journals that publish those studies; in the media, which blows the studies out of proportion; and among politicians who use them as campaign material.) Writing confidently, incisively and even-handedly, Satel aims to debunk many prominent medical studies that have been used to demonstrate that people who suffer from psychoses have been abused by the psychiatric establishment, that American women's health has long been ignored and that promoting the idea of individual responsibility among the disadvantaged (encouraging the poor to take advantage of free health care or people at risk for AIDS to practice safe sex and use clean needles) is prejudicial. General readers will be surprised to find many of their long-held beliefs about American health care turned inside out, but Satel provides cogent arguments that deserve the careful consideration of anyone who believes that better, more affordable health care is obtainable and that politically correct reform is not the way to achieve it.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (December 26, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465071821
• ISBN-13: 978-0465071821
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,351,899 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revealing The Truth, August 30, 2002

By	Randall Boyce (Nashville, Tn USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The author of this book has done a very excellent job in revealing how the almost cult like mentalities of political correctness, alternative medicine, and paranormal healing have crept into mainstream medicine. She uses logic and a mountain of research data to support her claim that the patient's best interest and scientific research are beginning to take second priority to political correctness and what some would call quackery.

Although the message is disturbing, I actually found reading this book to be very enjoyable. Where else will you find illogical and deceptive assertions made by politically correct advocates actually challenged? For example, a feminist group claims that only 14 percent of NIH (federal) research funds go to women's health issues. And it turns out that this is actually true. But, as the author discovers, you are not told that less than 7 percent goes to research on male diseases and the rest goes to research on diseases that are not gender specific. The book is full of examples like this, where claims made by the so-called experts don't hold up under further scrutiny.

I strongly recommend this book because it discusses controversial issues that truly are a matter of life and death. Cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's and Diabetes will almost certainly be delayed, at best, because of political correctness and other problems mentioned in this book. On the other hand, its hard to read this book and not take some comfort in knowing that there are still many people in the medical profession like Dr. Sally Satel who have the intelligence and courage to stand up for the truth!

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What every doctor wanted to say, August 23, 2002

By	"levinemd" (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine (Paperback)

Satel has done an outstanding job on this book. I found that as I read it, I had a strong urge to jump up and yell, 'right on!' As a professor at a medical school, I wish that all of my fellow faculty would read this. There are some extreme examples in this book but I don't doubt that they are real. This book exposes what many of us have felt but lacked the words and clear thoughts to express.

Medicine in the modern sense is about empirical proof. Some crackpot ideas have panned out as great ideas. Others are not withstanding the test of reality. An idea must be tested and Satel holds some ideas up and examines them with scientific curiosity. Too many of the ideas advanced as modern or post modern therapies are lacking evidence to support their acceptance.

This is a must read for all of us in academic medicine and public health. Satel's critical thoughts need to be reviewed and discussed. I believe that she has brought together some really important ideas.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars thought-provoking and disturbing view of modern medicine, October 10, 2001

By	"mekinb01" (BROOKLYN, NY USA) - See all my reviews

Having learned about this book in Objectivist Newsletter, I rushed to buy it and swallowed it all in one day. The assault on rationalism and objectivity is, sadly, a long-standing problem of modern intellectuals, but I was sincerely hoping that this self-defeating irrational approach would be limited to liberal arts. I was wrong. As Dr. Satel very convicingly shows, the field of medicine is not by any means immune to this assault. The problem is, this time we are talking about human lives and well-being at stake. Giving up objectivity and critical thinking of modern science to sentiments like "I don't care how it works or what the studies show, I FEEL it works" is a sure prescription for disaster. Even though I do not share author's pessimism upon the matter, I do think this book is a serious wake-up call for doctors and patients alike.