Letter: Need for names

From Eric Sutherland

Your remarks about the increase of “mental and neurological conditions” were
inappropriate for the editorial of a science magazine
(17 November, p 3).
We all work for pay, some by trying to increase the circulation of a magazine. It is as
bad a lapse of logic to suppose that defining more mental and neurological
conditions is designed to increase the numbers of patients for greedy
therapists, as to suppose that Carolus Linnaeus increased the number of birds by
devising the classification system—the birds were already there.

Also, bracketing Samson and Ezekiel with this recent increase of
money-spinners is misinformed, as antisocial disorders are not new but were
described by practitioners such as James Prichard in 1833. Nor is temporal lobe
epilepsy new, but was noted by practitioners such as J. Falret in 1860 and
Hughling Jackson in 1875. It has been studied intensively since.

Linnaeus and many naturalists after him described large numbers of species,
the detailed variations of which probably contributed to the development of the
evolutionary theory. What about the numerous new particles and forces of
sub-atomic physics? A genetic biologist was recently describing on the radio the
identification of over one hundred sub-species of blackberry—which might
lead to improved cultivation.

If the editor of the leading science periodical for the general public
considers new psychiatric classification unscientific, he should say why.

Richmond, North Yorkshire