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Donald W. Schafer, MD
Pasadena, Calif

JAMA. 1970;212(4):627.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

Why did you in this editorial (210:717, 1969) label (or libel) gullible those three psychiatrists who believed the history given by a member of the family, as well as the judgment of a referring physician? Would you also put into print this same implication of weakness in professional judgment, if a surgeon operated on a patient with a hysterical "conversion" type of pain in the back, especially if the spouse insisted that something be done? Would you label as medical "blackguardry" all internists, because you heard that three of them had given morphine to addicts, whose wives had made their stories believable?

Or, will the psychiatrist of this letter be labeled by you as a "blackguard" because he is pointing out your bias against the specialty of psychiatry when you use this word about an episode in fiction—Gore Vidal's Washington, D.C.—and compare that episode with three . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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