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AMERICAN
ILLITERACYABOUT
PAIN
by
Norman
Cousins
Americans are probably the most pain·
conscious people on thc face of tbc eanh.
We are becoming a natíon of píll·grabbers
and hypocbondriacs, escalating the slightest
pain
into
a searing ordeal. For years wc have
had ít
dru.oun~
into us - in
prin~
on radio,
over
1V
and cvcryday convcisation - that
any hint of pain ís to be ban.ísbed as though
it
were the ullimate evil.
Thís melancholy situation
has
its refte<>
tion in tbe troubled feeling of a:.>ny doctors
lhat tbe medic,al professioo today ís tak.ing
on tbe trappíngs of a pain-lcilling industry.
Theír offiees are overloaded wilh people
wbo are terrüied because of rninor pains an.d
wbo are mo'rbidly convinced tbat sometbing
dreadfulis about to bappen
10
tbem. _
ft
is
all
too cvidcnt
by
now t.bat
thC.
cam..
paign to get p<OJ!Ie to
run
10
a doctor al lhe
llrst
sigo of pain ba$ boomeranged. lnste4_d
of being able
to
give
adcquat~
attcntion
to
patients genuinely in nced of expert diag:,
nosis aod treatment, d()C(ors oow 6nd their
time soalr.ed up by people who
ha
ve notbíng
except a temporary indisposltion or a
psy·
ebogenic ache and who are reluctant to leave
· without clutcbing a prescription.
Mosl patients have the ritualized notion
tbat tbcy haven:t really gotten their money's
worth
from
a visit to tbe
doctor
unless tbey
are told
lhey need mc:dicaúon.
and thc more
.._.__~~~~sj);J!$.
Jh$.!l<JII'lo. J)octors
·!-- -:: Uf
tofCSist
tJi'ese pressures Out they bave
come to
recogníz~
that lbey lose .credibility
unless tbey bao:d tb.eir patient a pieee of
paper contaíning mysterious marldngs.,
No form of íllileracy in the !Jnited S tates
ís as widespread
as
ignoranoe about pain -
what
it
is,
wbat causes
it,
how
to
deal with
it
without panic. 'ry¡e failure of general educa–
tion
10
provide a basic understandillg of pain
is
cosUy beyond calculation. h is
not gener–
ally understood
t~at
many forms of pain are
natural and
normal,
that
90%
of pain's
symptoms are self·limiting.
tbat
they're not
always an indication of poor bealtb, tbat
chey are frequently the result of tension or
stress
or
insufticic:nt
sleep or overeating or
poorly balaneed foods or smoking or exce>–
sivc d.rinldng or
inadequate exercise.or
bad
air
or worry or
idleness
or boredom
or frus·
tration
or
supprcssed
·rage or aoy one of a
number of
abuses
imposed on
the
buman
body in modero society, and that the sures<
way to cJiminating
pain
is
to eliminate the
abuse. -
Instead of faeíng up lo che abuse, bow·
evcr,
many people
reacb instinctively for
$e
paínkUiers - aspirins or otber analgesies,
barbíturates, codeines. tranquitizers, slcep–
íng pílls, and dozens of other desensitízing
drugs.
Pain increases in
intensity
with fear. The
fear that pain may he an indication of a
grave
illness can
in
it.self Cl'eate otber
symp–
toms lackíng in organic significance.
Man~
patients,
bowever,
feel indigna.nt and ln–
sulted if a doctor
ceUs
ther:n that lheir pain is
psychogenie. Tbcy tend to interpret any sueh
suggestíon as an accusation tb.at
they
are
complaining ofnonexístcnl symptoms.
People nccd to he educated about the fac\
lhat many forros of pain have
no
undertying
physical
caose but are due co fension
O(
a
negative environment.
Sometimes tbe pain may be a manifesta·
tion
of
~oonvcrsion
bysteria," tbe name
given by
Jean
Cbarcot, the famed 19th-een–
tury neurologist and teacher of Sigmund
Freud, to physícal 'symptoms that
ha
ve lheír
origins_
in
emotiooal diSturbanCC$.
WEEK ENDINO
MAY
3, 197S
MOTION PICTURE concept of Los Angf!les afttN a .massiv4 tt&mol'.
ATIME TO QUAKE
by
Robert Ginskey
Hollywood recently produced a super·
spectacular disaster ftick, "Earthquake," de–
picting
the
thunderous destruetion of
Los
Angeles. Undoubtedly box office reeeipts
wiU
be baodsomely
increased
by
the
current
fashionable
concem
over the poteotial for
a
major.qualr.e in California.
lndeed.
interest in eanhquake prediclion
~as
.bee
0
,gtea~y ephan~ed
by the publica–
ríori .of a profitably
conttoversial
book.
The
JuplteT Effect.
In
i~
Drs. John R. Oribbin
and Sccpbcn H. .Piagemann claim that a rare
alignmenl of.che majqr. planets in 1982
will·
toucb off a. ehain of .Veots ultimately crig·.
geríng a greac earthqualr.e along Calíf9rnia's
San Andreas faull system. • ·
·
•
To back up
tbís
alarming forecast, the two
scicotists quote recent
findin&s
in
sucb·varie$1
fields as planetary and solar astronomy, me·
teo~log)'
l nd geopbysics. They menlion
such
diStant ptienomena
as
soJar
stonns.
wbich
havé
beeñ
noted to slow r.be
earth
's
rotation, apparerul)! cáusing
a
nolable
in·
crease in the number of earthquakes ip geo–
logically unstable region.•.
lt might be a good 'idea íf ooncerned pby·
sicians and educalors could get
together
and
make knowledge abouc pain
an ·
írnpol'taDt
part
of thc
regular scbool curriculum. A$
for
tbe populace al large, perhaps some of tbc
sarne teebníques used by public service
agencies to make
pcople
cancer...conscious
can be used
to counteract the growing terror
of pain and íUness in general.
People ougbt to know that notbíng is
more remarkable
about
the human
body
than
its
recuperad
ve drive,
given
a
modjcum
of respeec.
h would
be helpfuJ,
JOO,
if
our broad–
easting' stations could be persuaded
10
pro–
vide, if noc equal time to the pain-l<ilting
drug advertisements, at
least
a few ininuces
eaeh
da
y of common sense on the subject of
pain.
As
(oc
the
Food
and Orug
Administration.
it
migbt be
interesting
to
know
why
an
ageney tbat has so energetieally warned lbe
American people ogaínst tak.ing vítamins
without prescription
ís
doing so little
to
con~
!rol over·the-,oounter sales eaeb year of bil·
lions of pain- lcilling pills, sorne of whích can
do more
harm
tban tbe pain they are sup–
posed
10
suppress.
The
authors
note
that
each
one
of
the
eigbt large quakes which has hit within SO
miles of San Francisco since 1836 has lalr.en
place withín ewo years following
a
period of
maximum solar
aetivity.
Needless to say, the apoealyptic pre–
díetions of "the Jupiter Effect"
ha
ve caused
a
storm of
controvcrsy
in
scientific circles.
Dr. Don
Andersoo, director
of
California
lnstitutc ofTechnotogys'SeiSriiologíclil'tlib–
oratory. said that
lhe
authors'
cause-and~f
fect
sequence
wa.s."'one lnfere.nee piled
Up<?n
anothei'.'"' ..
But
be added
that
there
i.s
evi-
•
· dence suggesting ( link" betweep very' small
váriaüo~
in..the
earth's
rotational
'Speed
and
earthquakes.
_
Dr. Harold Zirin, .Professor of ascrophysíes
at Calteeh has also expressed great skepci–
cism
about
lhe
book's
ba.sic premise.
"The tidal efl'ec!5 of lhe planets on sun–
spots are trivial;'' ·be emphasized, arid "sun·
spots are
comptetely
magnetic
phenomena
within
the
sun."
Professor William Kaula of the Depart–
ment of
Planet~ry
and
Space
Sciences at
The ,BabyLift Controversy:
HUMANITARIA" EFFORT
OR KIDNAPPING?
by
Ca
role Ritter
Various
u.'s.
weltare
and adoption
agencies are working frantically
10
evaeuate ·
as many
orphans
as possible before the inev.
ilable Communist attack on Saigon. Ameri·
caos properly feel a sense of guilt for
meddling in Yietoam's civil
War
and pro–
long¡ng and íntensifying tbeir local conftict.
But
instead
of mereJy removing lhose
babies
from
danger
unti.l the
threat of war
has
passed, we're ftying them across <be
Pacific and tuming them
inco
surrogate
America.ns. This
bas caused a oegative reac–
tion
in
som.e circlcs.
The Víetnamese people bave a strong
sense of family obügation and are more tban
willing to care for theír owo.children. Foster
mothers wept as babíes eotered the cargo
planes bound for California. Can we blame
some of
tbe
Vietnamese for oonsidering
our
do-goodi.ng as ínterferenee or even kidnap–
piog?
U.C.L.A. bclieves Gribbin and the Plage·
ma'nn are "inc:orrect.
to
"Tbere was no
attempt
to
compare earth·
quake
records
in tbe past wítb planetary ti·
dal puU on the sun or wílh sunspot activüy.
In·
fact, tbere was no marked earthquake
activity around the last aügnmenl in 1803,"
Kaulasaid.
Kaula
'notes.that
there
was
no
discu.ssion
of why a slighUy above average planetary
tidal pull sbou.ld lead
10
an exceptional peak
in
solar activity
since
~e-
tides
onen
come
within a few perecnt of tbe expected
1981
JeveJ.
;-..'\(
Professor George
O.
Abell, chainnan_
_pf
the astronomy depanment at U.C.L.A., feel$
tbere
is a "good cbance .the book may l'l.Bve
beeo
wriCten
with
tongue
in
check..'' He
· poioted out the auchors poke fun at ascrol–
ogy
when chey say, "When
tli'e
moon is in
the seventh · house and Jupiter alígns with
Mars ...
Los
Angeles will he des<royed::
The debate will probabl;r continue eitber
until 1982
oomes
and goes, or until "the big
one''
bits.
At
least one
benefit
will
be derived
from
che
reoewe<l int«est in big quakes:
Public pressure may pr'!mpt officials
10
speed
up
preparatíon for
coping
with
a ma–
jor eartbquake - an event which virtu:illy all
autborities betieve
co
be
an
inev-itability..
d
Joseph
H.
Reid, executive díre<ltor of tbe
Cbild ·welfare League of America,
has
stated.
~wouldn't
it be
rar
better
for
the
children ofVietnam to be eared for in tbeir
own bigh.ly civílited culture - whetber
Communist
oc
oon-Communist - than
lO
destroy that culture furtber by exporcíng
tens
of tbousands of chem
10
aüen bornes? Hun·
dreds
of
thousands
of
Vietnamese men,
women, and ehildren bave died duríng
decades of war. Do we further deplete tfieír
popu lation
by
'rescuing' their
children
ibrougb ftighl
tp
tbe United States?"
But
lbere's another
side
to
the s·tory. Many
orphans
aren't
in foster
homes and
will
die
anyway
if
help isn' t quickly forthcoming.
!f
tbe Viet Cong don't bomb them lírst, tbey
will waste away
under lhe
rar rrom
idyllic
conditions in many Vietnamese orpbanages.
Also, sorne of those orphans are
the
direct
result of our af'ter-hours military
p.resence.
Those wilb blue
eyes
or kinky black hair
won't
be
readily aocepted into Vietnar,nese
society. Perhaps we do have
a
moral obliga–
don
to
takc:
ca.re of our
own.
as lbe Frencb
did. But no matter wbat
actions our
collec–
tive
natiooal consciente teads
us
to
take.
thcre are no
easy
or "'right" ways to atÓóe
for the grief our Asian. intervention has
eaused. O
7