Correspondence

Review of PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine

N Engl J Med 2001; 344:1170-1171April 12, 2001

Article

To the Editor:

Daniel Fox's review of my book PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine (Feb. 8 issue)1 contains many misleading statements. Fox faults me for “exaggerating the influence” of the purveyors of political correctness (PC). But this simply dismisses the seven chapters of detailed evidence showing the ways in which political correctness is indeed a corrupting influence. Fox himself notes that “nurses who embrace . . . alternative therapies embarrass many nursing leaders.” The indignant reaction of responsible professionals does not show negligible harm; it attests to its seriousness and growing influence.

Fox notes that courts are now “skeptical of persons who, during therapy, recover memories of sexual and physical abuse.” Is this not, then, reason to be doubly concerned when federal funds are spent on “trauma therapy” — a veritable set-up for engendering more false memories?

Most recklessly, Fox says that “Satel invents data.” “Inventing” data is a serious charge, yet he points to no data (numbers, statistics, or study findings) that he can claim were manufactured or misstated. He refers instead to my reporting that “California has approved legislation requiring their public medical schools to increase the number of training slots for primary care physicians and decrease slots for specialists.” “Not so,” says Fox, who points out that Governor Pete Wilson twice vetoed the legislation. True, Wilson vetoed the bills — the schools had agreed at the last minute to reform their practice, making a new law unnecessary. There is no “inventing of data” in my description of the California legislature's actions. To make such a serious allegation is downright irresponsible and not a proper criticism from either a literary or a scientific perspective.

Sally Satel, M.D.
Oasis Clinic, Washington, DC 20002

1 References

1. 1

   Fox DM. Review of: PC, M.D.: how political correctness is corrupting medicine. N Engl J Med 2001;344:462-462
   Full Text

Author/Editor Response

Dr. Fox replies:

To the Editor: Dr. Satel's letter, like her book, states reasonable positions and then takes them further than the best evidence justifies. I offered evidence for each of the judgments I made in the review. Each reader can decide whether he or she prefers Dr. Satel's judgments or mine. I stand by what I wrote because I checked the evidence I used with multiple sources before submitting the review.

Dr. Satel says that she did not invent data and then acknowledges that she misstated the fact in question. In social science, facts are data. Her statement that the state of California “approved legislation” that required medical schools to take particular actions can only mean that a bill became law. My sources said, and Satel now agrees, that no such law was made. Instead, the contending parties negotiated an accommodation that turned out to be a weak substitute for lawmaking.

I share Dr. Satel's dismay about the more extreme advocates of “political correctness.” I am, however, more optimistic than Dr. Satel that the institutions and intellectual life of the health sector will continue to accord priority to the rigorous pursuit and application of scientific knowledge. I also believe that publications, even those that criticize extremists, must be accurate and fair.

Daniel M. Fox, Ph.D.
Milbank Memorial Fund, New York, NY 10022