The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

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THE DRAWBACKS of single-mindedness in the approach to a problem or challenging situation is that it obscures solutions that might well be superior to or more effective than the approach being used.

I refer specifically to Iraq. So blindly have we been attached to the use of military might and police action that a glaring alternative has been obscured. For example, the Koran specifically forbids the raising of arms by one Muslim against another. This basic principle or credo comes from Mohammed himself. In their fear and rage driving their differences the Sunnis and the Shiites also seem to have lost sight of Mohammed’s sacred admonition.

It seems to me we could well have headlined Mohammed’s decree loudly and continuously to the Iraqi people. The best in the world of advertising may well be able to bring hostilities to an end. Yet in the political debates I listened to recently there was not a word of such an approach. Meanwhile, the cost in lives continues to mount.

But that is not all. More than 150,000 Americans who have served in Iraq will return with post traumatic stress disorder with all its sequels. Unfortunately, there are very few psychiatrists or psychotherapists who are qualified to treat the disorder, although there are some excellent ways to do so. Why? In their worship of tradition and science, clinicians resist empirically and successfully demonstrated alternatives as untested and experimental. It seems to be a quirk of the human mind that if something isn’t working, you just do more of it.

That applies, as well, to our health-care approach in that we have next to the worst longevity record of Westernized countries, despite a per capita outlay in dollars that dwarfs anything spent elsewhere.

Julius Cohen, PhD

Emporia