Trolling the skeptics?

“Fakta eller fantasier. Föreställningar i vetenskapens gränstrakter” is a Swedish book edited by Jesper Jerkert. It´s a sequel to ”Vetenskap eller villfarelse”, which I haven´t read. Both books are written from a skeptical perspective and reprints material from “Folkvett”, the magazine of the Swedish skeptics´ organization VoF. Think “Skeptical Inquirer” and CSICOP and you get at least some of the picture. Since the contributions are written by a diverse bunch of authors and are often quite short, the quality of the material is equally varied. Most of it is tolerable, regardless of whether you are a skeptic or not. For obvious reasons, I found the Atlantis debunking unconvincing, but YMMV. The book was published in 2007 and shows Olof Rudbeck on its front flap! Yes, that would be the 17^th century loco who claimed that Sweden was, ahem, Atlantis…

One contribution stands out, and I can´t help thinking that the editor might have been trolling his readers. It´s the Dalkvist-Westerlund article on parapsychology, which actually defends the idea that parapsychology is a legitimate science, and criticizes its skeptical critics in some detail! I will certainly use this piece, fully cross-referenced, in any future confrontation with the Angry Atheist brigade (although I might just as well be sending it telepathically to James Randi). Another intriguing article attacks Sigmund Freud, painting him as a more or less conscious fraud. I noted that the article attacks both his early “seduction theory” and his later idea that all memories of sex abuse in early childhood are purely imaginary – both claims, the author of the article claims, are Freud´s own speculations, since the psychoanalyst´s own case files back up neither. The author sees Freud as a seeker and intellectual explorer who made the mistake of insisting that his wild ideas were scientifically proven. (Velikovsky comes to mind here.)

Yet another interesting piece deals with Environmental Somatization Syndrome (ESS), including oral galvanism, Sick Building Syndrome (SBS), and oversensitivity to electromagnetic fields. The author, a medical doctor, believes that these syndromes are all in the mind, and tend to go away if the authorities simply refuse to listen (and refuse to pay). The fact that each generation, or every country, has its very own “ESS”, often connected to new forms of technology, while the symptoms are identical, is to the author a good indicator that we are dealing with problems that are at bottom psychological. Also, ESS-type symptoms *disappear* if a real toxin is present, to be replaced by the standard symptoms associated with that particular agent.

Lysenko, alternative medicine, humanistic psychology, the new Swedish Bible translation, dowsing, the Intelligent Design movement, the history of conspiracy theory, and the differences between CSICOP and VoF are other topics covered in “Fakta eller fantasier”.

Perhaps not the best book around on the topics under debate, but quite well-crafted for lighter weekend reading. If skepticism is your cup of tea (or homeopathic sugar water), you probably won´t regret reading it.