Recently, Clinical Psychiatry News (CPN) sent me away with $500.00. After I completed my article on improved psychiatric outcomes through an integrative approach, CPN rewarded my efforts by canceling my column and rejecting my paper.
My editor informed me that CPN got its money from pharmaceutical ads. Out of concern for the claims made in my article, three conventional psychiatrists were asked to read my article, and they all rejected it. My editor had learned that CPN didn't want to publish case studies from me, so she "naively" assumed that I would be allowed to write about integrative approaches in psychiatry instead.
When I shared the bad news with Ana, who recently withdrew from six psychiatric medications. She wrote:
"All the innovation in medicine comes from mavericks like you. You’re part of a very esteemed group. One of my favorite quotes is below.
'First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.' By Mahatma Gandhi"
If a maverick means being rejected by the "in-group," then I'm definitely a maverick. It would be nice, for once, to belong to an "esteemed group" of mavericks. I would imagine a meeting of mavericks to go something like this . . .
Conformity: the Appeal to Conventional Clinicians
Notes from a Medical Mavericks' Meeting
Individuals dressed from all different historical eras milled around the long buffet table, sampling different appetizers and drinks. Some pulled long Gandolf-beards away from cavernous punch bowls. Others swooshed their hanging sleeves away to avoid swiping the cheese and crackers.
The atmosphere was reserved and quiet. Most lingered shyly, keeping their mouths full and their thoughts and comments to themselves. I glance down at my unembellished invitation. Yep, this is the place for the first annual "Mavericks’ Meeting."
Soon, someone gently called the meeting to order, tapping his spoon against a glass bowl. The sound carried like a bell throughout the small meeting room.
A man with a bushy mustache who reminded me a little of Mark Twain began the meeting.
Ignaz Semmelweis: Welcome Mavericks! I am happy to be the host tonight for our first annual Mavericks’ Meeting. I hope you had enough time to enjoy the appetizers. As you all know, we have a global pandemic going on right now, so please wash your hands before you touch anything! Now, let's all find a chair around the room and begin our discussion. The topic tonight is conformity and its appeal to conventional clinicians.
A man who looked like George Washington, with curls resting above each ear, spoke up.
Leopold Auenbrugger: I love how you used that spoon Semmelweis! It reminds me of the good old days when I tried to teach other clinicians to use percussion to diagnose fluid in the chest. Of course, no one paid any attention to me. It took 47 years and Jean Nicholas Corvisart to get people to learn a simple technique. In my humble opinion, conformity is the norm. You just have to give conventional clinicians more time to absorb new information. Like 50 years or so.
Roger Bacon: Actually, dear Auenbrugger, in my case, it took four and a half centuries before my Opus majus saw the light of day. I needed a new Pope to get me out of prison for heresy. Forty-seven years are nothing. I had to lay down my life for the right to investigate. I agree that conformity is the norm, but let me add that conformity can be more of a religion for some people.
A woman with wavy dark hair spoke up.
Elizabeth Blackwell: A religion that can be misogynistic at its core, gentleman. I faced conformity when I knocked on the doors of medicine. I was considered mad and disreputable for aspiring to obtain a medical degree. In my opinion, conformity among conventional clinicians can arise through not just rejection of new ideas, but through discrimination based on race, gender, or social status.
Zabdiel Boylston: I understand and empathize with your distress, madam. I nearly got hung for trying to inoculate people against smallpox. Had to hide in my own house for a while. My successes only rekindled people's anger. I take comfort that today's pandemic could be alleviated because of my early clinical investigations. Challenging conformity in society pushes people to murderous inclinations. It's quite baffling how successful medical results can enrage people.
As each person in the Maverick meeting shared their experiences, I began to feel better and better about my rejection from CPN. In the end, just as I thought the meeting would conclude with me as a spectator, all heads turned to me for my own story.
Alice Lee: Uh, Clinical Psychiatry News rejected my article on how psychiatric disorders can be cured, and patients can reduce their medications safely. They didn't try to hang me or put me in prison though.
Elizabeth Blackwell: They allowed you into medical school without multiple rejections?
Alice Lee: Well, yes. Lots of women get into medical school nowadays.
Ignaz Semmelweis: They didn't try to ruin your reputation? You are not reduced to a state of mental illness from abuses heaped upon you?
Alice Lee: Not yet. Maybe it may happen. You never know.
Roger Bacon: Count your blessings and keep up your investigations. We welcome your Maverick spirit. Now let us all decide on the date of our next meeting.
The meeting adjourned soon after. As I walked home, I felt a lot better.
* Information from Medical Mavericks: Volume One by Hugh D. Riordan, MD
The Holistic Psychiatrist Podcast (Ep. 26):
Extraordinary Stories of Hope,
Healing and Miracles with Alex Hermosillo
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