Genetics at the root of it all
He was worried that a recent scientific conference in Dublin the 12th World Congress on Psychiatric Genetics was likely to "perpetuate the myth" that genetics do indeed play a role.
Not only did he appeal vainly to science to deny the obvious (ie, that a great many behaviour patterns are inherited from our parents' DNA), but he displayed almost unbelievable woolly thinking by objecting to a scientific discussion forum because there was no "substantial scientific evidence" for the theories being discussed at it.
Surely that's what scientific discussion fora are there to find out. In reality, Mr Fleming's wishful thinking notwithstanding, there is ever increasing evidence for genetic inheritance of a large number of behavioural traits from illnesses such as schizophrenia, through various types of depression, all the way to personality traits such as extroversion or introversion. Not only that, but substantial progress is being made on understanding some of the processes involved.
Granted, behind Mr Fleming's apparent wish to gag scientific discussion there were one or two legitimate concerns. The first was that the heavy involvement of the pharmaceutical industry in funding research into neuropsychological disorders and behaviour traits might be skewing the direction of such research.
A second, and closely related, concern was in a perceived tendency amongst researchers to 'medicalise' behaviour traits that might or might not be legitimately describable as illnesses in order, presumably, to legitimise their 'treatment' with profitable new medicines.
The first of these concerns, however, would be better served if Mr Fleming, instead of wasting effort trying to stop the tide from coming in, were to campaign for the greater use of some public funds to speed up research in this area and ensure balance in research directions.
An appropriate response to his second worry might be to publicise the need for public discussion on the very difficult ethical questions surrounding the definition of what counts as mental illness and what does not.
One thing is certain: Mr Fleming's hostility to a particular direction in scientific research (genetic neuroscience) ill serves the purpose of extending the reach of human understanding.
Perhaps more importantly, his attitude shows little real sympathy for the multitudes of people who suffer from real mental illnesses badly in need of more effective treatments.
Jaime Hyland
Heinrich-Mann-Str 26 13156
Berlin
Germany
