From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/5330 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Steve Vickers Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Re: Dangerous knowledge Date: Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:18:40 +0000 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: Steve Vickers NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1260236790 16381 80.91.229.12 (8 Dec 2009 01:46:30 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 01:46:30 +0000 (UTC) To: Vaughan Pratt , Original-X-From: categories@mta.ca Tue Dec 08 02:46:23 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from mailserv.mta.ca ([138.73.1.1]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1NHp9i-0000Xd-6r for gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org; Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:46:22 +0100 Original-Received: from Majordom by mailserv.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.61) (envelope-from ) id 1NHogq-00023u-FA for categories-list@mta.ca; Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:16:32 -0400 Original-Sender: categories@mta.ca Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:5330 Archived-At: Dear Vaughan, I haven't looked at the programmes, but I mentioned the general drift of the categories discussion to my wife Dr Camilla Haw. She is a practising psychiatrist and has also done a lot of research with the Oxford Centre for Suicide Research. Her comments were (i) academics in general have a low suicide rate (high rates are for health professionals and agricultural workers), and (ii) 4 cases over a century or more don't in themselves add up to risk factor. Best wishes, Steve. Vaughan Pratt wrote: > Aren't artistic types alleged to be more prone to mental illness than > say sales clerks, real estate agents, auto mechanics, farmers, > lumberjacks, etc? More generally, creative people? On that basis > would one expect a higher prevalence of mental disorders among > theoretical physicists (Boltzmann) than experimental ones (Rutherford), > or among mathematicians than engineers, or among top chefs than short > order cooks? > > Everyone seems to be a mental health expert today, just as everyone is > an expert on evolution and global warming (but not quantum mechanics or > ecology or anesthesiology, funny how that works). I'd be uncomfortable > with any innuendos of this kind about theoreticians vs. practitioners, > or creatives vs servants, or prima donnas vs. choristers, without some > solid independent evaluation of this question by professionals with a > substantial track record in mental health. Has any such evaluation been > made? > > Vaughan Pratt > [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]