The Iatrogenic Psychology of Practitioners' Defeatism and other Assertions of the Null Hypothesis

Abstract

To illustrate iatrogenic defeatism, a series of surveys gave 370 psychiatrists, psychologists, and physicians (randomly selected from their national association biographical directories) the opportunity to submit examples of “incurable” disorders. Despite the scientific, logical, semantic, and practical absurdity of identifying anything as “incurable” (an assertion of the null hypothesis), the majority of the 139 respondents did exactly that, often listing disorders from their own specialization as hopeless. To the extent the respondents are representative of present clinical practice, a best guess is that scientifically grounded non-defeatist practitioners may be found in one of every two psychologists, one of every four psychiatrists, and one of every 10 non-psychiatric physician-specialists. The null assertions of Bender, Bergman, Hayflick, and other distinguished iatrogens are examined in the topic contexts of mortality and aging, child development norms, cortical decay, human genetics, senility, variable intelligence, and some new directions including biofeedback and hypnosis. The iatrogenic impact of prestigious defeatism may be hazardous to our health.