Editorial Enablement · Nov 30, 06:00 PM

The 19 November 2005 issue of British Medical Journal included a brief essay in its Soundings column, Dr. A Will See You Now, by Colin Douglas (pen name of Edinburgh geriatric specialist Dr. Colin Currie). The essay begins enigmatically, then takes a marked downhill slide into all-too-familiar stereotypical territory:

He will see you now. He may not see what you really want him to see, or even what you think he ought to see for himself, but he will see you, and he will almost certainly do his best.

But Dr A will see you through a glass darkly; and just how darkly will depend on the degree of his impairment, which may be anything from a minor blunting of empathy to total emotional colour blindness.

If you are a normal human being, as most patients are, he — and for reasons of biological determinism Dr A is most likely to be a he — may strike you as brusque, lacking in warmth, or just a bit odd. If you happen to be the complaining type you might find yourself asking how people like that ever get into medical school…

People like that…

The remainder of this latest body-slam against individuals with Asperger Syndrome is now viewable only by subscribers to The British Medical Journal. Fortunately for those with an interest in advocacy against disability-based discrimination, the Rapid Response Page is freely available to the general public. The responses were rapid indeed, and some particularly eloquent. Here are some excerpts:

...he has described Asperger Syndrome inaccurately and has emphasised a single dimension. In other words he has drawn a caricature.—Andrew F. West

I wish to raise my daughter in a society that won’t castigate her innacurately and may even come to appreciate the particular skills and vision that she and people from all over the spectrum can offer if they are approached in the right way. Articles such as this which only add to the growing stock of bigotry and childish name-calling regarding the nature of autism will not help in that goal.—Kevin Leitch (Kevin maintains an excellent autism blog.)

And now, yet another practitioner takes up the baton and decides to “have a go” at us Aspies who appear in the professions, launching a one- dimensional attack on us (noting the oft-disparaged so-called “bad” side, whilst neglecting completely to account for the fact that the vast majority of us Aspies in practice or in academia have exemplary professional attitudes).—David N. Andrews

The author of this article is clearly more in tune with the urban legends of autism than the reality, for I am sure no one would describe me as uncaring, having spent half a life time caring for a disabled mother whilst still finding time to be an advocate and volunteer for other disabled people.—Laurence B. Arnold FRSA (Here’s Larry’s site.)

It is opinions and opinion pieces like these that make the lives of the “labeled” persons more difficult. So, see the person, not the label. —Catherina G. Becker

Colin Douglas paid attention to those responses, and offered an apology:

...On reflection, therefore, there are no excuses: this was a column to apologise for, and I am more than happy to apologise for it.

I was happy to see this, of course. Nonetheless, a nagging question remains, one raised by several letter-writers, and one that is not a whole lot different from the question raised by the publication of Nutty Professors in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and by Grand Old Problem: Biology, Boorishness and Bush in the The Simon.

Try substituting “gay”, “disabled” or “black” for “Asperger’s syndrome” and ask yourself whether publication would have even been contemplated?—Barbara A. Reay

It is unlikely that such an article would have passed editorial review had it suggested that the paraplegic, or deaf or blind doctor should be taunted in this fashion and discriminated against purely on the basis of their disability label. —Helen M. Fidler

I raised this question in my own letter to the British Medical Journal’s editors:

As the mother of an adolescent with an Asperger Syndrome diagnosis, and friend to many on the autistic spectrum, I was gratified to read Colin Douglas’ apology for his shockingly offensive attempt at humor, “Dr. A Will See You Now.” To err is human; to publicly acknowledge error, humane. However, no matter how sincere the remorse of its author, this collective character assassination was not simply the work of a “lone gunman.” What could Dr. Godlee, Dr. Smith and their colleagues have been thinking when they approved this piece for publication? Will they have the decency and humility to apologize, too?

I will be keeping my eye on future issues of The British Medical Journal in the hope that they will clarify their editorial policies in this regard. A student at Madras Medical College stated the problem well:

The publication policy for ‘Rapid Responses’ reads that “gratuitously rude” responses will not be published. Yet the BMJ seems comfortable with not just rude, but bigoted and offensive personal opinions. That’s hypocrisy.—Balaji Ravichandran

Comments


  1. Oh, I get it! “Bad bedside mannerâ€? is really Asperger syndrome. — Lisa Jean Collins    Dec 2, 02:48 PM    #