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Remark's to:
Are Women, People of Color, Asians, and Southern
Europeans Inherently Inferior To North-European Males? - A History
of Biological Determinism - A Cultural, Spiritual, and Intellectual
Disgrace
Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2006
11:28 AM
Dear Dick:
I read your paper
today over my morning cup of coffee. I
really enjoyed it and I'm pleased that someone in our field is
also concerned about biological determinism and, more specifically,
the pharmaceutical industry.
I recently read Marcia
Angell's: "The truth about the drug companies". It gave
me nightmares. Seriously. I would wake up at 2:30am
in a panic saying to myself: "We are SO in deep
shit!"
I've taken an intense interest in this topic, not only
because I work with psychiatrist and neurologists who believe
they invented the brain, but because the pharmaceutical
industry dominates all aspects of our infrastructure. Papers,
such as yours, are potential sources of conflict for them. KEEP
WRITING 'EM!.
I've written some
myself that not only irked local physicians
here in Denver. I've attached my "original "guest
commentary to the Denver Post, mainly for you to read (and hopefully
enjoy) the fact that it was comical but I was fairly serious. Then,
if time permits, go to my website (www.jeffkupfer.com),
click on links and review the reprint from CCBS and see what
actually made it to the Post after the editor got to it. You'll
note that the funniest lines were removed which would have told
the reader it was satire. I caught all sorts of crap from
local physicians who completely missed the point and, consequently,
drew wider attention to my article. It was reprinted
in newspapers, and radio stations as far as Canada interviewed
me to ask my opinion of drug treatment and overprescribing. Boy,
talk about a great opportunity for behavior analysts to get the
word out...
Funny how things work
out but it confirmed my mantra that
I adopted working with Ed Malagodi: We ought to be writing
and publishing outside of mainstream ABA, and put ourselves
into the general public. To this end, I've just completed
my first novel, Aspen Fall, a very twisted thriller. You
can read the synopsis on my website. I'm currently seeking
an agent and preparing for publication. I've handed off
a copy to Murray Sidman for review, primarily because the
book details stimulus equivalency as the tool for uncovering
the secret behind the murder (and to give Murray peace
of mind since one of the characters is based on him). I will
also be sending a copy to Hank Pennypacker to review on his vacation
in July, simply because Hank always supported my "tangential
operant behavior."
Malagodi used to tell
us that the behavior-analytic community ought to be set up
as if Jack Findley had designed it: make
it multi-operant. This is why I've enjoyed much
of your work. Sense of humor goes far in our culture
and there is just too little of that in our happy ABA community. Anyway....
cudos on your paper and I hope it really pisses people off. BTW,
if you'd like to preview a copy of Aspen Fall, I'd be happy
to pass it your way.
Best,
Jeff Kupfer