Madam, - Hugh Ramsay (January 12th) makes a number of wild claims about psychiatry and religion in the light of Prof Patricia Casey's involvement with the newly launched Iona Institute.
In the first instance, he suggests that individuals with religious convictions cannot be objective when it comes to interpreting sciences such as psychiatry. It is unclear, however, why religion should be singled out in this fashion. For instance, can socialists be objective economists? Can environmentalists make fair-minded climatologists? Can a pacifist be an impartial military analyst? Mr Ramsay's position should be seen for what it is - a barely disguised prejudice against those of religious faith.
More seriously, he alleges that gay and lesbian people have suffered from depression and committed suicide as a result of a "potent cocktail of religious dogma and an unobjective psychiatry". As an advocate of dispassionate scientific inquiry he should produce peer-reviewed scientific evidence to back up this claim - or else retract it. -
Yours, etc,
RACHEL BYRNES,
Grove Avenue,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.