The Anti Medical Movement

Since it's beginning, modern medicine has had significant and vocal opposition. The majority of this opposition comes from those who practice other forms of the healing arts, disagree with the medical approach and fear the competition. Other significant opposition comes from those who fear or mistrust the motives of large institutions, such as governments and corporations. Another significant type of people opposed to medicine are those who have had bad experiences with doctors or medical procedures.

As with opposition to anything, there is a whole spectrum of attitudes and approaches. At the milder extreme are those who work to reform the medical industry by exposing the very real misdeeds and corruption among many people and companies. At the more extreme end of the spectrum are those who completely fabricate or highly distort claims about the medical community, painting them all as greedy, stupid, incompetent, closed-minded, evil people who care only about getting their patients' money and giving them drugs to solve every problem. And, there are all kinds of views and approaches between these extremes, which include all different levels of honesty, rationality and paranoia.

One of the biggest problems with medical opposition is that those with the more extreme and negative views tend to be the most vocal while those with evidence-based, specific complaints tend to be quieter, preferring to solve their specific problem rather than get lots of attention. Because of this, anyone who has a problem with the medical industry and does any research is most likely to encounter extremely negative views about it and not as many moderate or positive perspectives.

Because those with extremely negative views of the medical industry are so vocal, it is easy for someone who has only a mildly negative opinion of medicine to become more and more extreme in their negative opinion. The things that are written and said about the medical industry are truly horrible, if true, and the people saying these things are quite articulate and convincing, and it is difficult to do the research to verify it for oneself. After years of hearing and reading such hostile reviews, it's difficult not to believe at least some of the claims made.

Because it is so difficult to research negative claims made about the medical industry, whether a person believes them or not has more to do with their existing beliefs about the medical industry than the truth. If someone has a positive view of the medical industry, they are more likely to dismiss negative reports and accept positive ones without scrutiny. And, if someone already has a negative view of medicine, they will be more likely to accept an negative report and dismiss a positive one without scrutiny. Further, people will actively seek out information that supports their existing beliefs and avoid contrary beliefs.

So, the anti-medical movement is made up of several different types of people. One major group are the competitors of the medical industry, either well-meaning or con artists, who have strong motives to discredit their competition. Another group are the more paranoid and vocal who truly believe that the medical industry is evil and that they must do everything possible to inform others, portraying medicine in the most negative light possible. Another major group is the ordinary person who has heard enough negative propaganda from friends, family, alternative health practitioners and vocal fanatics that they have become persuaded themselves and now tell their own friends and family about all the evils they believe the medical industry is doing.

The big problem with the anti-medical movement is that it convinces people to avoid effective and necessary medical treatment, which often leads to severe medical problems and death. Despite the many very real problems with the medical industry, the people who work in it are not evil and there is a sincere effort to understand the body and provide safe and effective treatments. Those in the anti-medical movement are generally well-meaning and sincerely believe the negative things they have heard and read about the medical community. With such beliefs, it seems the right thing to do to alert others to danger also. And, without bad intentions, they end up leading others into the danger of avoiding needed and effective medical treatment.