-------------------------------------------------- On 16 Jan 2009 at 19:04, Beth Benoit wrote:
Chris, A thousand thanks for your research. For my part, I researched how to let Sanjay Gupta know, and found this URL as a way to contact him - through the CNN website: http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?67 Well, I dunno. I fully agree that FC is a crock of you-know-what and I view with fear and loathing any attempt to appoint a Surgeon-General, whatever that is, who actively promotes this dangerously quack therapy. But is Gupta really _ actively promoting_ it? I took a look at the urls which are cited in support of this alarming contention. My comments are in square [ ] brackets. "CNN reports that Sanjay Gupta, who has actively promoted facilitated communication as a valid and useful communication method, is being considered for United States Surgeon General. Here are some links to Gupta's promotion of FC. http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/blogs/paging.dr.gupta/2007/10/giving-autism- voice.html [In this blog, Gupta _reports_ on FC, but I see little indication that he's promoting it. He notes that it is controversial and explains why, and even says after apparently being taken in by some, "In some cases, I was a bit more skeptical." He ends by asking for reader opinion. Admittedly, a strong denunciation of FC would have been far preferable, but as advocacy goes, this is pretty mild stuff.] http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/presents/shows/autism.world/fc/index.html [This does not carry Gupta's name, and he may not be responsible for it. But it seems pretty critical of FC, noting "Subsequent literature, studies, and views on FC largely discredit the technique." Also, if you click on the link to "relevant studies", a quick scan of them shows many reporting results showing it be ineffective. I tried to view the Gupta video on that page to see if that's where the advocacy is hiding, but after jumping through many hoops, I still couldn't get it to run.] http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0804/02/acd.02.html [This is an Anderson Cooper interview with Gupta and it concerns his endorsement of Amanda Baggs, not FC. He does appear incautious, and it may well be true that Baggs is a fraud, but this is still not an endorsement of FC. BTW, some may recall my sceptical take a few months ago on an amazing case of keyboard communication in a young Toronto autist. I subsequently discovered that she had had many years of intensive behavior modification which developed her keyboard skill, a significant bit of information not reported at the time. It's still remarkable, but much more believable that way. ] http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/121-swift-november-9- 2007.html [This is a blog on the Randi site which adds nothing further to the claim of Gupta advocacy of FC] Bottom line: I'm still disappointed that Gupta didn't take a more scientifically-informed view of this dreadful "therapy" but what he's done falls well short of advocacy, at least in the urls cited above. I'm not gonna write to my congressman (don't have one anyway). Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [email protected] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
