So many will watch this video and come away siding with Dr. Amen, feeling like they're doing the right thing to disregard the mean man on the other side who is questioning everything.
The alternative medicine and pseudoscience communities thrive on "but what if it works" or "they're just trying to help" attitudes, which snake oil sellers capitalize on.
I actually thought the interviewer was a little disingenuous. He said things like "We're on the same team" and "I'm not trying to trap you", then proceeded to lob his guest with criticisms from the other team and questions aimed to maneuver him into a contradiction. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but if you're going to do it, be forthright you're engaging in a debate.
Earlier in the interview he could have put his cards on the table and plainly stated "Myself and others in the medical community are skeptical of the efficacy of imaging on outcomes, and a rigorous, double-blind study would lend dramatic support for us to adopt what you're touting."
Then they could have had the conversation he was clearly after, focused on that issue.
Instead it felt like I was watching for ages as he took a winding route to get there, then the interview cut off abruptly when they finally really did.
The overlays applied in editing while helpful and fair in some cases, at other times came across as one-sided. It's a shame we can't see a follow-up where the interviewee has an opportunity to respond (or squirm) in light of them.
For the record I would very much love to see additional research and gold-standard, double-blind studies. In the meantime I'll treat this as "Hey, we've got this interesting thing we can measure, we're seeing some good results in our practice" without over-emphasizing the confidence in this one diagnostic.
I did find the bit interesting about how having a gauge you can viscerally see impacted patients' engagement in care. Both agreed on the potential usefulness of that aspect, and conceded the difference in profiles between patients coming to Dr. Amen vs. ordinary front-line family physicians.
And also... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem
I never said "Doctor Mike" is a bad doctor. I have no idea if he is a good or bad doctor.
Further, an ad hominem is when a person attacks someone's character without any base.
I wrote specifically about him not being at the forefront and questioning his values, as displayed by his actions during the pandemic. His actions were literally not in line with Covid guidelines. Those are guidelines that were formulated by hundreds (thousands?) of doctors, all of whom sought to be at the forefront of medical science during a pandemic.
As another user said, MRI scans not corresponding to brain activity is not really news, and in at least the part of the US I live in, MRI scans are not so easily recommended, especially since they're not covered by health insurance.
Dr. Amen should be called out, of course, but it doesn't mean a doctor is at the forefront for doing so.
An Ad-Hominem is specifically an attack on someone's arguments using some un-related attack on their character.
EG: "Dr. John's Opinions about vaccines are invalid because he smokes cigarettes." or "James assertion that the earth is round is invalid because he thinks that dogs are better than cats."
Ad-Hom is short for argumentum ad hominem. If you aren't making an argument with your attack, you are just insulting someone.
Presumably because it is very analogous. You are essentially saying Dr. Mike shouldn’t be trusted because he made a bad decision. That is extremely similar to saying you shouldn’t trust a doctor’s advice because they happen to smoke.
> Further, an ad hominem is when a person attacks someone's character without any base.
No. An ad hominem is when the person is attacked rather than the argument. A terrible person can still make a perfectly sound argument. Calling them terrible doesn’t change the argument, even if it is emotionally satisfying.
> I wrote specifically about him not being at the forefront and questioning his values, as displayed by his actions during the pandemic.
You’re attacking his actions and not his recommendations. Ad hominem.
it is not ad-hominem to try to understand a person's motivations for expressing a particular opinion, which is why the above poster referred to 'character' which is not specific to the definition of ad-hominem, but is in the spirit thereof, that is, distracting from the argument. but if the person has shown themselves to be working contradictorily to public health policy, especially in consideration of the hippocratic oath, you may ask reasonably what they are about.
That is not what an ad hominem is.
Meanwhile habitual frauds and incompetents get a pass because at least their stupidity is consistent.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-SHgZ1XPXs