Book Reviews
PROSTITUTING SCIENCE: The Psychologisation of MCS, CFS and EHS for Political Gain
Diana Crumpler Inkling Australia 2014
Reviewed by Bonnie Black 
Taking up from where Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring left off, Prostituting Science delves into the subject of non-communicable diseases plaguing society today. Based on the understanding that illnesses like ADHD, autism, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, depression, schizophrenia, MCS, EHS (electromagnetic hyper-sensitivity), and CFS are more than just diseases of our civilization, Crumpler asserts they are by-products of our reliance on chemo- and electro-wizardry, and she presents credible, authoritative evidence to support her claim.Diana Crumpler, whose first book, Chemical Crisis, received widespread critical acclaim, wrote Prostituting Science – The Psychologisation of MCS, CFS and EHS for Political Gain in memory of a friend and fellow sufferer of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). They shared “a wonderful 25 year long, hands-across-the-ocean friendship.” Pam lived in Ontario; Diana lives in Australia where she worked as a teacher and librarian until she retired in 1984 due to ill health.
In the introduction, Crumpler writes, “Welcome to the world of alien refugees: the world of the chemically and electrically hypersensitive, aliens within their own civilization, refugees from the realm of twenty-first century chemo- and techno-wizardry. For such people, ‘going green’ is not an ideological or a philosophical choice; rather, it is their only feasible modus vivendi, their only way to wellness, and for some, the only means of survival. It is a world that I, myself, know all too well, having inhabited that hell-hole for the best part of my life.”
In addition to an impressive collection of scientific data, the author shares the story of her own family’s descent into the disabling illness of MCS, CFS, and EHS – all of which were a consequence of exposure to heavy pesticides. Skeptics may be dismayed to learn that these pages contain all the evidence needed to convince even the most hardened among them that all of the above-mentioned diseases are bona fide physiological disorders.
But Crumpler does not stop there. She includes an extensive Glossary, References, Index list, and effective treatment protocols for recovery. She also documents gross abuse of civil and human rights – including the author’s abduction and committal under an involuntary psychiatric treatment order on the grounds that “MCS and EHS do not exist” and that “to believe in their physicality constitutes a delusion and, hence, a manifestation of psychosis.”
Prostituting Science details one family’s battle with MCS, CFS, and EHS. The book also explores the mechanisms behind these diseases and their allied disorders and explains the paradox whereby the more that is known of a cause of any of these three illnesses, the more vehement and widely accepted have become allegations of what is called psychogenesis (the origin of symptoms seen as a result of emotional [versus physiological] causes). Crumpler refutes these allegations and takes the risk of publicly declaring her belief instead in the physicality of MCS and EHS. She writes, “Only by speaking out, by making MCS, CFS, and EHS issues of public concern can we create the climate of awareness necessary to prevent being done to others (possibly with fatal results) what was done to me. To allow oneself to be cowed into silence is to betray the memory of the many friends already dead from these, the most physical of illnesses.”
Writer Pelda B. Hyman called Prostituting Science “A monumental and perhaps the most inclusive work ever on MCS and EHS.” But I think the last word should go to the author, whose dedication includes this tribute: “To Owen, Belle, Jordan, Fraser, April, Emily, and Sebastian, our hopes for the future, in the hope that hard-won awareness will allow your futures to be all that we had once planned our own to be. And in memory of my father, Francis Denis Connellan (1904 – 1979), field naturalist and campaigner for environmental awareness in the days before that term had become a buzz word.”
To purchase a copy of Prostituting Science, send an email to: bernie.crumpler@gmail.com
Book Review Tags: vitality, vitality magazine, book reviews, depression, autism, m
About the Author
Bonnie Black is a valued Vitality contributor.
No comments:
Post a Comment