My Take | A Hong Kong lawmaker’s ill-advised words in a Legco madhouse
Lawmaker Ann Chiang’s comments about psychiatrists has upset three prestigious medical groups
Most arsonists, according to an American urban legend, are firemen.
That sounds a bit like what Ann Chiang says about psychiatrists.
By claiming that shrinks suffer most from mental problems, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong lawmaker has upset not one, not two but three of Hong Kong’s most prestigious medical groups: the College of Psychiatrists, the Medical Association and the Academy of Medicine.
In a masterful understatement, the association has pointed out the obvious: mental illnesses cannot be transmitted through conversation, as Chiang claimed.
To be fair, she wasn’t targeting psychiatrists but some pan-democrats who were busy filibustering against the government’s copyright bill in the Legislative Council. And studies in the US and Britain have found that psychiatrists in those countries do suffer a greater incidence of mental health problems than the general population, though the causes have nothing to do with Chiang’s claims.
“Do you know who most suffer from mental problems? It’s psychiatrists,” she said.
“Why? Because psychiatrists sit and listen too much from patients with mental problems. Listen and listen, they themselves become mental too.”
