Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Fiduciary Responsibility and Improbability Principle 115
. Some years ago the question came up in the Committee for
Mental Hygiene Among Negroes of the impossibility for Negroes to
avail themselves of treatment in the best private mental hospitals in
the New York area. An ever-increasing number of Negroes, mostly
from the fields of amusement, literature, and sports, can afford such
accommodation. Therefore, in line with the contention of this presentation,
I suggested the establishment of an endowed mental hospital
for Negroes with private quarters, similar to the one (Hillside Hospital)
I had proposed in 1922 for Jews, which would cater to the
latter's, linguistic and ritual needs. It was based solely upon the
opinion that it is simpler to achieve a restitution to health when the
patient's confidence is gained and this is more readily attainable in a
setting in general sympathy and empathy with his previous experience.
However, a Negro member of this committee, a journalist, quietly
replied, "Doctor, others see a different solution of the problem"distinctly
indicating the exertion of pressure to force a change in the
position of established white institutions, completely misunderstanding
the psychiatric basis of my proposal.
It would seem, then, that an institution such as the Veterans Hospital
at Tuskegee, where an all-Negro staff of psychiatrists and
nurses administers treatment to an all-Negro patient population,
serves this particular group more efficiently than would be possible
with a white staff.36
Dr. Oberndorf thus states his value pOSItIon, but clearly and
logically moves it aside when his professional and scientific decisions
must be made. He, it appears, is willing to "accept the consequences
of scientific discovery, even when \t makes him, emotionally
uncomfortable."
I can find no conclusion for this paper that compares with an
excerpt from an article by Morton Cronin, who, strangely for present
purposes, is a professor of English. After pointing out that the
intellectual (under which concept we may subsume the social
scientist) always enjoys a larger measure of freedom than the average
citizen, he continues:
Now it may be that a given population as a whole should be freer than
it is to express opinions. But no matter how free it becomes in this
respect, its intellectuals-if it has any-must be freer. This may be
undemocratic, as the scientist's (sic) special right or the judge's may be,