SEPT. 15, 2015 <\/div>\n
… Dr. Insel, a brain scientist who made his name studying the biology of attraction and pair bonding, was the longest-serving director since Dr. Robert H. Felix, the agency’s founder, stepped down in 1964. Appointed in 2002, his tenure spanned four presidential terms, during which he honed an easygoing political persona and an independent vision of the agency’s direction. He steered funding toward the most severe mental disorders, like schizophrenia<\/span>, and into basic biological studies at the expense of psychosocial research, like new talk therapies.<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\nHe was outspoken in defense of this path, at one point publicly criticizing establishment psychiatry for its system of diagnosis, which relies on observing behaviors instead of any biological markers. His critics – and there were plenty – often noted that biological psychiatry had contributed nothing useful yet to diagnosis or treatment, and that Dr. Insel’s commitment to basic science was a costly bet, with uncertain payoff…<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n… In his statement, Dr. Insel said the final details of his move to Google were not firm.
The team is developing advanced technologies for better detection and prevention of illness, he wrote, and “I am joining the team to explore how this mission can be applied to mental illness”…<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nOne can look at it like Benedict Carey does in this piece. He’s a reporter with a keen eye for such things. And what he says is certainly accurate, "
He steered funding toward the most severe mental disorders, like schizophrenia<\/span>, and into basic biological studies at the expense of psychosocial research, like new talk therapies<\/font><\/strong>" and was certainly a big problem. But that’s not what bothered me so much about Dr. Insel’s reign at NIMH. It’s the word, "steered<\/font><\/strong>." The way I’ve thought of it in my mind, he misunderstood the meaning of his title – Director. It’s supposed to mean that he directs<\/em> an Institute and its infostructure in a way that locates the best and brightest scientists we have and provides the support they need to do those things that the best and brightest do – bring the scientific apparatus to bear on the problems they have insights into. The scientists generate the projects; the NIMH evaluates the relevance and feasability of those ideas; and supports the best and brightest of the lot. Dr. Insel interpreted the word director<\/em> as meaning he directed what those projects were going to be, and the scientists followed his directions [if they wanted to be funded].<\/div>\nBesides being too controlling, Insel is a "breakthrough freak." He seems to go for the "shiny objects." So "personalized medicine" comes along and we hear about that. Then we hear about "neural circuits." One after another, we’ve moved from potential breakthrough to potential breakthrough as if there’s some over-riding plan, but we never quite found out what it was. All we really knew was that whatever it was, it came under the heading, "clinical neuroscience." He went to medical school and did a psychiatry residency, but he never practiced medicine and that has been apparent throughout his tenure. He has had the perspective of a recent graduate throughout his tenure at the NIMH – unseasoned by the experience of real-life medical practice. In the words of my current neighbors, "book larnin’". So I’m relieved at his leaving and immediately worried about what’s coming next. <\/p>\n
But that’s not the only worry. He’s going to Google, a big resource that’s capable of bringing off about anything they set their mind to do. And I’m worried that Insel will point them in the direction of screening for mental illness. In my mind, that means putting more people on even more psychiatric drugs they don’t need. He’s a nut case for "the global burden of depression" and other such buzz phrases. Those ideas plus Google are a recipe for some real problems. <\/p>\n
However this transition plays out, his replacement
and<\/u> his future placement are definitely things to watch very carefully…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NIH Director’s Statement Regarding Dr. Thomas Insel’s Departure Dear Colleagues, After serving 13 years as Director for the National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], Thomas R. Insel, M.D., will step down effective November 1, 2015… While we conduct a national search for a new NIMH Director, Bruce Cuthbert, Ph.D., will serve as Acting Director… Francis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59916"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59945,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59916\/revisions\/59945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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