Jan 18, 2020
https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/01/15/contra-contra-contra-caplan-on-psych/
I.
In 2006, Bryan Caplan wrote a critique of psychiatry. In 2015, I responded. Now it’s 2020, and Bryan has a counterargument. I’m going to break the cycle of delay and respond now, and maybe we’ll finish this argument before we’re both too old and demented to operate computers.
Bryan writes:
1. With a few exceptions, Scott fairly and accurately explains my original (and current) position.
2. Scott correctly identifies several gray areas in my position, but by my count I explicitly acknowledged all of them in my original article.
3. Scott then uses those gray areas to reject my whole position in favor of the conventional view.
4. The range of the gray areas isn’t actually that big, so he should have accepted most of my heterodoxies.
5. If the gray areas were as big as Scott says, he should reject the conventional view too and just be agnostic.
I think the gray areas are overwhelming and provide proof that Bryan’s strict dichotomies don’t match the real world.