“A new study published in the August 11 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine demonstrates a possible link between unexplained chronic fatigue and sinusitis, two conditions previously not associated with each other. Also newly noted was a relationship between sinusitis and unexplained body pain. These findings offer new hope to patients lacking a diagnosis and treatment for fatigue and pain.” ScienceDaily.

This brings to mind the saga of perhaps the most famous act of malpractice in medical history, that of Freud’s young German physician friend, Wilhelm Fleiss, who had a theory linking nasal pathology and psychopathology a century ago. Fleiss almost killed a young patient named Emma Eckstein whom Freud had referred to him to attempt to treat her excessive masturbation through nasal surgery; he overlooked the removal of a meter of gauze packing from her nasal passages after the procedure, leading to suppuration and mysterious, massive, ongoing hemorrhage. Eckstein’s plight, it transpired, became a formative influence on the origins of psychoanalytic theory.

As Jeffrey Masson describes it in his blistering 1984 exposé The Assault on Truth, Freud blamed Eckstein rather than his friend Fleiss’ dereliction, attributing her continuing bleeding to a wish for attention and affection. Freud’s need to deny that Eckstein’s brush with death had a real cause, Masson and others argue, was a pivotal moment in his renunciation of the sexual seduction theory of his patients’ distress and the inception of the idea that their ‘memories’ of incest were ‘hysterical’ fantasies rather than credible reflections of real events.

And, finally, here is yet another loose association between the nose and the sexual organs, at least figuratively. Guardian-Observer/UK

Beethoven blast too much for homeless: “Stoke-on-Trent City Council in the English Midlands said that four days of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor had driven the car park’s six inhabitants from their ‘home’ but had prompted protests that it was being unsympathetic to their plight.” Sydney Morning Herald. But fans of ‘music therapy’, never fear: SA right-wingers ‘tortured by rap’: “A group of alleged white extremists facing treason charges in South Africa has complained about being forced to listen to “black” music while on remand in prison.” BBC News

How to Tell Friend from Faux space.com

“The dietary supplement creatine – known to improve athletic performance – can also boost memory and intelligence, researchers claim.

The supplement is favoured by some athletes

Creatine is a natural compound found in muscle tissue, and has been popular with athletes looking for ways to increase fitness.

However, experts say that it has a role in maintaining energy levels to the brain, and have the theory that taking more creatine might actually improve mental performance.” BBC

And: Not only intelligence pills but ‘intelligent pills’ The Age

“An ‘epidemic of Alzheimer’s’ over the next few decades could be far worse than previously thought, experts suggest… Their study, based on US Census data, suggested that by the middle of the 21st century, up to 16 million Americans will have Alzheimer’s.” BBC News

A man who killed his brother’s fiancée in a psychotic rage just hours after being released from an overnight stay at a psychiatric hospital for bizarre behavior successfully sued the hospital and the doctor who treated him there for not holding him involuntarily as the law permitted. He had successfully used the insanity defense to gain an acquittal at his murder trial; the judge ruled that the hospital and the doctor’s negligence had substantially contributed to the victim’s death. The man claimed damages because of how horrible the experience of being remanded to jail after his apprehension on the murder charge was. The Australian

Not knowing the details of the case, I don’t know how to assess the finding that the treaters were negligent in not reasonably forseeing or preventing the possibility of harm. But there should be no general principle inferred from this case that treaters are responsible for the harm committed by the psychiatric patients under there care. Negligence is a relatively narrowly defined circumstance the burden of proof for which is on the plaintiff rather than just assumed whenever a harm occurs. Psychiatric violence is usually not forseeable in the short run even if you know (as was probably not the case in this instance, because the article implies that the patient apparently was suffering from a transient acute psychotic episode rather than an exacerbation of a chronic condition) that the patient has a history of or a potential for violence in the abstract… unless you go in for preventive detention (although I realize some would argue that that is exactly what involuntary psychiatric hospitalization is…). I hope this case will not perpetuate the stereotype of the dangerous psychotic patient which is an important contributor to the villification and stigmatization of the psychiatrically ill in our society. Violence among psychiatrically ill individuals is much mreo foten of a more prosaic variety, arising from substance abuse or antisocial traits. The ostracism and scrutiny of the mentally ill as a whole destabilize them further and are an important source of their suffering.

Related? Here’s a disturbing story about the lengths to which the forced drug treatment of psychiatric patients can be taken, predicated on the fact that

China has 70 million bachelors unable to find wives. Men outnumber women as a result of a one-child policy which led to many fetuses of girls, traditionally discriminated against, being aborted. Yahoo!

Why Minds and Technologies Are Made to Merge by Andy Clark (book review) Metapsychology

“At a time when religious and conservative right-wing groups are attempting to dismiss homosexuality as ‘unnatural,’ a leading zoologist has said gay people could be seen as the ‘pinnacle of evolution.’

Speaking at the Edinburgh Book Festival, Clive Bromhall said that humankind’s evolution has resulted in our present state of ‘infantilism,’ in which we break the primate mold by being playful, creative and childlike right into adulthood.”

(…)

“Homosexuals excel as artists, thespians and other playful, mimetic professions. Being playful is at the heart of being human. It’s something that should be celebrated. You could say that homosexuals are at the pinnacle of human evolution.” gay.com news

“The twentieth century produced a bounty of academic racists who openly declared the biological inferiority of black people. Many of them were generously funded by Wickliffe Draper’s Pioneer Fund.” Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. Herrnstein and Jensen’s genetically-based IQ arguments, about which I wrote last week, are mentioned here, although they are by no means the winners.

Bill Maher: “Now that MTV has made pimping a cool lifestyle, is it surprising that suburban teenagers are turning tricks for mall cash?” Salon

“Grief among Western officials here was intense today and unease widespread. The suicide bombing at the United Nations headquarters… resonated far beyond the palm-lined Baghdad highway where it sits.

For Iraqis, it suggested that their country might already be trapped in a cycle of bloodshed more widespread and cruel than they thought possible after the American invasion.

Many feel helpless. They are not sure whom to blame, pointing the finger alternately at Islamic militant groups and Iraq’s own neighbors, all of whom they believe might have an interest in wrecking efforts to rebuild the country under American guidance.

But they also condemned the Americans, seeing the attack as another sign of the poor job the occupation forces are doing providing security in a country they now nominally control.” NY Times

Diplomat ‘Will Be Acutely Missed’, Says UN’s Annan; he has been considered a possible successor to Annan as Secretary General.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, the senior U.N. diplomat who was killed in today’s truck bombing in Baghdad, was one of the world’s most experienced nation-builders, a major star at the United Nations who ran Kosovo after U.S. air power drove Serbs from the ethnic Albanian enclave in 1999, and delivered East Timor to independence last year.

The Brazilian diplomat, 55, who began his U.N. career as an obscure refugee official, was tapped by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in late May to help Iraq’s transition to self rule. He was due to step down Aug. 27 and return to his regular job in Geneva as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Washington Post

But, with all due respect for his stature, let us remember that he was only one of twenty UN relief workers to die in this tragedy, for which the Bush junta’s arrogance and ineptitude should be held responsible. And that is not to suggest that these deaths are more meaningful than the countless Iraqi civilian casualties of the US invasion, whose numbers US authorities have not even found it important to tally.

News analysis —Chaos as an Anti-American Strategy:

The bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad today provided grisly evidence of a new strategy by anti-American forces to depict the United States as unable to guarantee public order, as well as to frighten away relief organizations rebuilding Iraq.

Military officers and experts on terrorism said the bombing fit a pattern of recent strikes on water and oil pipelines and the Jordanian Embassy, although they emphasized that it was too early to uncover any connections among the attacks.

In recent weeks terrorists have conducted almost daily attacks on the American military. But after the bombing today there is a growing belief that anti-American fighters, whatever their origin and inspiration, have adopted a coherent strategy not only to kill members of allied forces when possible, but also to spread fear by destroying public offices and utilities.

President Bush was defiant today. He said: “Every sign of progress in Iraq adds to the desperation of the terrorists and the remnants of Saddam’s brutal regime. The civilized world will not be intimidated, and these killers will not determine the future of Iraq.” NY Times

There is no such thing as creating the impression of spreading chaos. The 800-lb. gorilla in the room is that the US cannot guarantee public order and is precipitating actual chaos, of course. But the finger will be pointed everywhere but at our own execrable actions.