The Hindu Business Line : Myths about cancer

Whenever we see something we don’t understand, we tend to ascribe a hidden cause to it, bemoans Dr Robert Buckman in Cancer is a word, not a sentence ( www.landmarkonthenet.com). “Before the modern era, ulcerative colitis was thought to be caused by an obsessive personality, schizophrenia by a dysfunctional family, and Down’s syndrome, a chromosomal abnormality, by the parents being intoxicated at the moment of conception!”

That’s what’s going on now with the cancers, continues Buckman. It involves two types of widely held beliefs, he explains. “First, that an attitude of mind can cause a cancer to develop and, second, that a positive attitude of mind has a big influence on the course of a cancer.” To the first belief, the author’s answer is simple — that most cancers appear to be arbitrary and unintelligible events, without an obvious cause or precipitating trigger. On the second, too, there is no credible evidence, he observes. “Following a long history of humankind blaming the patient, it is possible that contemporary attitudes about the mind and cancer are simply part of that long tradition,” frets Buckman. A must-read.

“Of course, there are some cancers where a patient’s actions are a known contributing factor — smoking in cancers of the lung, mouth, bladder and pancreas, for example, and sunlight in skin cancers. But most of the other cancers arrive mysteriously, and apparently randomly.”

Blaming the patient helps people who do not have the disease feel safe, and perhaps superior, rues Buckman. “It may make us feel better at the expense of the patient, but it simply isn’t a reflection of the truth.”

D. MURALI

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

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