Battle Of Ideas

I really enjoyed attending the Battle Of Ideas weekend, although by the end of the weekend I felt like my brain had been removed, whizzed in a liquidiser and then poured back into my head!

There were lots of great discussions and provocative things said. I particularly enjoyed the debates on obesity, the resurrection of religion, Darwin and Intelligent Design, the politics of climate change.

The debate I didn’t enjoy was: CAM: junk science or genuine alternative. When I saw the line up, I realised immediately that complementary and alternative therapies (CAM) had no real champion in the speakers. Professor Edzard Ernst who is the Laing Chair of Complementary Medicine, University of Exeter And Plymouth, was one of the speakers. At first sight this seems like a voice for the CAM community, but professor Ernst seems to be wedded to the double blind placebo trial as the only way of accessing information. I have written on my web site for therapists about why I feel this has profound flaws for understanding CAM. My concerns were confirmed when I listened to the speakers who presented a caricature of the typical CAM client as the neurotic worried-well. When there was a chance for the audience to speak I got a chance to say I didn’t recognise this typical client and that when I’d been a therapist I’d seen (and helped) people with eczema, asthma, epilepsy, arthritis and more, and these people certainly couldn’t in any way be characterised as the worried well. Unfortunately many of the speakers from the floor spoke against CAM. I felt very disheartened but cheered myself up with the thought that a few years ago there wouldn’t have even been a debate on CAM, as it wouldn’t have been seen as a significant enough phenomenon to be worth having a debate on.

The really outstanding debate for me was entitled: “My brain made me do it: biology and freedom”. Lucid, elegant arguments from a lawyer, neuroscientists and professors of geriatric medicine and sociology. It was enthralling to listen to, and the questions and comments from the audience posed more ideas. No conclusions were drawn, but that is the nature of this event – you are presented with well argued, opposing views and left to draw your own conclusion.

I shall certainly be booking for next year’s Battle of Ideas.