A Mind of My Own

What is Groupthink?

Wikipedia describes it as “a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. Individual creativity, uniqueness, and independent thinking are lost in the pursuit of group cohesiveness... During Groupthink, members of the group avoid promoting viewpoints outside the comfort zone of consensus thinking...

Groupthink may cause groups to make hasty, irrational decisions, where individual doubts are set aside, for fear of upsetting the group’s balance.”

The question I am posing is how guilty are we of Groupthink? Many of us feel or suspect that we are critical and independent thinkers because we come from free and democratic societies, but is this really the case? George Orwell’s “1984” explored the ideas of Groupthink, but I fear very few of us realize just how much we participate in it.

Here’s one place I see Groupthink at work -- pharmaceutical drugs. Each time I see a commercial I am reminded of Groupthink’s effectiveness. Through its use, big pharmaceutical companies have gained our acceptance for the most absurd of drug treatments. Each time I spot a drug commercial, I shake my head wondering how a “treatment” with such drastically dangerous side effects could be approved. For example, there is:

Symbicort – The first commercial I noticed for this drug offended me. It featured the “silhouette” of a woman walking around explaining the drug’s benefits. My reaction to the campaign was that the pharmaceutical companies were laughing at us, wondering just how ridiculous they could become and still have us accept the product. In my opinion, they were too embarrassed to put an actual face to the voice explaining the drug’s “benefits.”

Symbicort is used to treat asthma, but get this... It may increase the risk of asthma-related death. WHAT?! So, it may contribute to death from the condition that it is supposed to treat? Interesting. A few other side effects include headaches, throat pain, and upper respiratory tract infection. Of course these are all things that an asthma patient hopes for when seeking relief from the condition.

Pristiq is used to treat depression, but it can cause any of the following side effects: Bizarre behavior, hallucinations, worsening of depression, suicidal thoughts or ATTEMPTS!!! WHAT?!

So, should I become depressed and go to my doctor for help, I may be given a drug that will make me more depressed or even suicidal? Interesting, yet, somehow this market continues to thrive with doctors pushing these treatments on us.

As if that were not enough, Pristiq has an extremely long list of other side effects, which I will not completely list for fear of boring you. A few of them however are: hives, itching, difficulty breathing, tightness in the chest, swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue; blood in the stools, chest pain, fainting, fast or irregular heartbeat and many, many more.

I could continue listing big pharmaceutical drugs that have numerous, unpleasant side effects, but it would just be more of the same. In fact many of these treatments require other drugs to manage their side effects. During my own cancer treatment, it was recommended that I take a daily injection to reduce the effects of radiation. But there was a catch because the injections caused nausea. I was then prescribed an anti-nausea medication even though my doctors denied my request for medical marijuana. I am sure this is another area where the big pharmaceutical companies are having a laugh. In economics, we would call this a multiplier because the sale of one drug leads to increased sales of another.

And why do we accept these preposterous prescriptions? A few months ago, I was discussing exactly this topic with one of my best friends, who is actually a bright and independent thinker. His response to me was “yes, some people are injured by these drugs, but isn’t it worth the collateral damage if the majority of people are helped by them?” This is precisely how Groupthink works. Collectively, we accept what is offered even though the absurdity of it is pointed out to us every day (in the fine print). And once a practice gains acceptance by the group, it then becomes unorthodox to question it. The hypothesis of Groupthink is the following: If everyone else accepts it, then it must be true.

To this reality I say no, there must be a better way. What about treatments that improve, or even cure a condition? Although we are led to think there are few to none, they do exist.

But before we can expect better, we have to cure one of our biggest illnesses, which is Groupthink itself.