I keep catching articles or snippets of news, and thinking that I’m losing what’s left of my mind.
What’s weird and making me think I’m losing my mind is that, apparently nobody else thinks anything is amiss. Meanwhile my head is exploding and all I can think to do is run screaming into the wilderness.
For example:
There was a shooting in Louisville KY at a bank. An NPR report says, it appears that the shooting started in a conference room. There’s a lot of the other usual “guns bad” rhetoric and there there’s the obligatory doctors comment. In other words, the report was really “Boilerplate”.
What caught my attention was that the reporter speaks of psychological issues and how perhaps red flag laws are necessary everywhere. Then the reporter introduces the Doctor to make comments as an Osteopathic physician.
That’s when my brain said, “WAIT Just A DANG MINUTE!!!”
What the hell?
My first thought based on the word Osteopathic was, “A bone specialist”. My second thought was, “Why is a bone specialist commenting on a clearly psychological issue?” My next thought was, “Clearly I’ve misremembered the definition, I should look it up.”
For context, here’s the way stuff like this is stored in my head.
For clarity, I’ll use a common word. We know that osteoporosis is degeneration of the bones often attributed to aging.
Osteo – Greek for bone.
Porosis – a condition (as of a bone) characterized by porosity
So osteoporosis literally means porous bones.
The word Pathic – perceiving, suffering, or affected in a (specified) way.
(As an aside this one is odd because there was one dictionary that said this word was either a homosexual bottom, or a catamite. These are not the definitions I was taught and means that I must carefully evaluate context if I see this word in the “wild” so to speak.)
Therefore you would expect for an Osteopath to study bones and the conditions or diseases that affect them.
OR I suppose you could use the odd dictionary (American Heritage online, by the way) and you’d come up with someone who has sex with bones????
If that’s not weird enough… Hang on, because this is where things get really weird.
The American Osteopathic Association website says something a bit different when defining what a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine is. The definition isn’t simple, it’s actually kind of a word salad and takes a whole lot more linguistic processing power to process than it should. A word that is a Title should be very clear in my opinion.
Here is the answer to What is a DO?
Short answer, these guys probably started out as Chiropractors and / or Massage Therapists. Both of which, have their place but neither of which I want doing a psychological assessment on me.
In either case, if the Osteopathic Doctor actually studied and was licensed to treat diseases of bones, OR if they’re Chiropractors & Massage Therapists, they’re not qualified to speak on issues of psychology.
Personally, I like the clarity of Cardiologist, Psychologist, Ophthalmologist, Endocrinologist, etc. See the pattern? You’re looking at compound words. The Ologist says study of, and the word preceding it, says what’s being studied.
I’m sorry it took such a long way to get around to the point.
The problem is that when you have some knowledge of what words mean, or worse yet, that so many of our common words have roots in ancient languages and their root meanings, prefixes, and suffixes, are rattling around in your head, it’s maddening.
If you’re at all like me, you find your brain being rebooted all the time because you take the word apart and know what something is. Or at least what it’s supposed to be.
Except NOW the word may, or may not, mean what you thought it did regardless of the common root word, or even the long accepted definition.
Which is why I keep thinking I’m losing my mind.
I have a fairly decent vocabulary, so when I’m listening to, or reading something, I’m getting meaning transferred to me by the specific words being used, and apply a certain level of precision based on the definitions stored in my head.
When those words suddenly lead me off into the weeds, off the rails, or down the rabbit hole, because contextually they don’t appear to have the meaning stored in my brain I start to ask questions.
One of those questions is; “Did I just have a stroke?”
Then I realize that in the case of the NPR piece, they wanted the gravitas of a “medical professional” making comments.
The best they could come up with was a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine.
Either the reporter didn’t know what that meant or didn’t care, and assumed that the majority of the American public wouldn’t know or care that the “Doctor” speaking was completely outside their lane.
One of my very best friends is a real “Doctor”. He legitimately holds a Phd. while he is very intelligent, and can speak eloquently on 18th century English Literature, I wouldn’t want him performing heart surgery on me or anyone else.
However, my friend could as legitimately spoken about the shooter in Louisville as the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine on NPR.
With my friend, at least you wouldn’t have to process through a word salad that Kamala Harris couldn’t get through, to find out he’s not really qualified to speak on matters of Psychology.
The problem is that when words don’t have precise meaning then the point, or message those words were trying to convey is muddy at best.
I suppose what caused me to write this insane rabbit hole is that I frequently wonder why it is that I don’t understand what people are saying. I hear or read the words but the meaning is unclear.
Right now, on my desk is a form that says, “In addition to completing form XXX-YYY, please also supply the following documents if the following box is checked.”
Okay, none of the boxes are checked. So I shouldn’t have to supply those documents.
Except that’s not the case. It turns out they do want one of the documents, and according to the person I spoke with, they always want that particular document.
The organization could save themselves a lot of phone calls and unnecessary mail by simply being clear. Either always check the box next to that document, OR reword the instructions.
When I spoke with the representative after submitting the form, and the organization bouncing it back twice, they treated me like a moron because I’d followed their instructions precisely.
I first started noticing this lack of clarity many years ago. I thought it was the world that was the problem. It was little things at first and I was convinced I was right…
Now I question my rightness because the rest of the world seems to be getting along just fine with blurry meaning, poorly written instructions, and misleading reports about the news of the day.
If the rest of the world sees no problem, then the problem must be mine alone.
I wonder, should I see a psychologist, psychiatrist, or would an osteopathic doctor due just as well. I’ve been described by some as bone headed…
As of today, all disasters must take a number!