Tom Cruise, who according to the IMDB dropped out of high school, gave what has to rank as one of the most assinine interviews on the Today show, well, today (6/24/2005). I’ll let you read it for yourself to get the full flavor, but here is a highlight:
CRUISE: No, you see. Here’s the problem. You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do……
MATT LAUER:
aren’t there examples, and might not Brooke Shields be an example, of someone who benefited from one of those drugs?
TOM CRUISE:
all it does is mask the problem, Matt. And if you understand the history of it, it masks the problem. That’s what it does. That’s all it does. You’re not getting to the reason why. There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance. [empahsis added]
No? Hmmmm. That’s interesting. I wonder if he’s ever tested his hypothesis by taking a sample of articles in PubMed, much less taken biochemistry/psychopharmacology coursework from a non-Scientologist. Hell, I’d be impressed if he’d read any scholarly book on the history of psychology/psychiatry (the two intertwine quite a bit, for better or worse, in their beginnings). I’ll admit the fields have episodes in thier pasts that, by modern knowledge, aren’t anything to brag about, but isn’t that what science is about? Perpetually self-correcting, working to make a given field constantly evolve.
But, Cruise, like any other American, is entitled to his opinion—no matter how (un)informed. What concerns me, occasionally working with people w/ dopamine activiation issues, is having to deal with a client coming in, saying, “But Tom Cruise said…” Maybe its just me, but unless they’ve undergone significant training (e.g., ), I don’t think celebrities should dispense medical advice, no matter, um, how well they know a particular field’s history.
Posted by A. Beaujean at 06:42 PM