Respectful of Otters: ". . .Wente's got a column up in The Globe and Mail, a Canadian national newspaper, that's been attracting favorable commentary even from bloggers who are ordinarily thoughtful and intelligent. (The column is behind a subscribers-only link, but you can currently access it through Google here). In the column, she suggests that PTSD in soldiers and veterans (and especially in the Canadian forces) is exaggerated and overdiagnosed, and insinuates that servicemembers diagnosed with PTSD are either whiners ('War is hell. But life can be pretty rough, too. You don't need battle trauma to cope badly with it.') or goldbrickers out for an easy life on disability benefits ('some people will abuse the system if it is financially attractive'). Her claims demonstrate little acquaintance with the scientific literature on PTSD; instead, they are heavily based on arguments by an American psychiatrist named Sally Satel, who is affiliated with and funded by the ultra-conservative American Enterprise Institute. Satel's - and, by extension, Wente's - claims about PTSD are baseless. Let's look at them one at a time. . ."
Read on for a deconstruction of these nonsensical arguments.
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