Why Do People Listen to Discredited Quacks Instead of Respectable Professionals?

by benchilada

Question by Maria: Why do people listen to discredited quacks instead of respectable professionals?
I keep reading about this thing known as attachment therapy. Every serious professional organization that is not affiliated with these guys says it is dangerous and useless. Even the diagnosis that it is supposed to treat, which is “attachment disorder,” is not a recognized diagnosis. Radical attachment disorder is a completely different disorder than the one described in “attachment disorder,” though sometimes “attachment therapy” for “attachment disorder” is billed under radical attachment disorder. Anyone with access to google could find a myriad of reliable sites discrediting the whole idea but so many people do it anyway. Why?

Best answer:

Answer by Patti
People often don’t understand how real science works and are sucked in by the same kind of sales pitches used in infomercials. They want ‘quick fixes’ and listen to quacks who discredit the medical profession (including psychiatrists, psychologists) with rhetoric like, “They make money by not curing you so you keep coming back” or, “Doctor’s don’t want to admit our remedy works because it would do them out of business.”

I wrote an answer last week to a question someone had about her sister with asthma. The sister refused to use her inhaler (no wonder she was having trouble breathing) and also had symptoms of major depression. I wrote a detailed reply including mental health and asthma info (I’m a nurse and worked with both populations). Several other people gave good advice. The asker chose as ‘best answer’ a reply from someone telling her to use some herbal ‘miracle cure’ and directed her to a website. I checked it out… pure quackery, and dangerous advice. People want to lose weight without exercise or diet, cure alcoholism without quitting drinking (“I just need to cut back”) and use supplements to cure end stage cancer. The worst is ‘colon cleansing’ which cures a fictitious disease made up by those who invented these colon cleansers. “Attachment disorder” and its cures fall into the same category. If it were only that easy…

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

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