Barbara Ehrenreich, author, political activist and breast cancer survivor, writes on the "Blame the cancer patient" mentality this week on her blog in a piece titled, "What Causes Cancer: Probably Not You."Ehrenreich writes about the new study that came out last week about fruits and vegetables not preventing the recurrence of breast cancer:
The perennial temptation to blame disease on sin or at least some grave moral failing just took another hit. A major new study shows that women on a virtuous low fat diet with an extraordinary abundance of fruits and veggies were no less likely to die of breast cancer than women who grazed more freely.
Ehrenreich also criticizes the positive psychology movement, where any health setback can be conquered with optimism, writing that the science here is "shaky at best."
Ehrenreich concludes that "optimism, especially about the validity of the conventional wisdom, can be hazardous. What you need is a narrow-eyed, deeply skeptical attitude."
1. I have to wonder, how many cancer patients who are "being positive" are adopting it out of a sense of public obligation, while privately enduring the doubt and fear that they're all too entitled to experience.
Regards,
Richard Day Gore
Posted at 1:31PM on Jul 24th 2007 by richard day gore