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From: Florence Myers
Date: 29 Apr 2010
Time: 06:56:17 -0500
Remote Name: 68.195.168.7
Robert and Ken: "To quip or not to quip" (based on the previous "quip" by Ken St. Louis re the so-called "Myers Syndrome,")... I was not quipping to consider naming the disorder after Weiss. However, I see Ken's point that we are "stuck" with the label of "cluttering." Two points, however, that pertains to this discussion regarding names (never mind definitions <smile>). When I had the "chronic fatigue syndrome" (CFS) a couple of decades ago, it was generically referred to as the CFS; at that time, even my family physician said 'there is not such thing as chronic fatigue syndrome' INSPITE of the symptoms I felt. (As I was leaving the doctor's office, however, the nurse said with a reassuring wink not to believe what he just said as she also had the FTS. Point is that this diagnosis of CFS is now well established, and is named after two medical researchers, the Epstein-Barr Syndrome. So, the FTS is quite descriptive of the diagnosis, and "cluttering" (of communication) may serve as a generic description or possible metaphor of the communication of...."cluttering." Maybe this should be the Myers-St. Louis Syndrome <smile> or the Daly-Weiss Syndrome <smile>, or simply the "Weiss Syndrome"! Secondly, I wanted to share an anecdoate about Deso Weiss. As Ken and I were completing the "little blue book" (available to download on the ICA website) we tried to think of individuals to whom the book should pay tribute. My mind went immediately to Van Riper (and his Track II) and/or Deso Weiss. I wrote to Van (back in those days there was no email) to ask if he knew how to reach Deso. Van Riper wrote back with the following tale. Van Riper had been the editor of the series of "little white books" (on various speech-language disorders) by Prentice Hall published in the 1960s. Van Riper firstly said I should have checked "the vineyards" (implying Weiss had since passed) of my backyard in the NY metropolitan area, as he had worked at Creedmoor Hospital (in Queens) a stone's throw from where I teach. More interestingly, Van Riper talked about the very early days when cluttering was really an orphan of communication disorders, at least in the States. To begin with, Van Riper had a hard time persuading the publisher to consider a volume on cluttering. What in the world is cluttering anyway? After he succeeded in persuading the publisher to consider this volume, he approached Deso Weiss to pen the volume. Deso, for whatever reason, declined...perhaps he was simply too busy as a practitioner at this huge state hospital which even today looks like a mighty fortress on the Long Island/Queens border. So, Van had to do a "hard sell" to persuade Weiss, but he succeeded finally. Without the tenacity and clinical insights of people like Van Riper and Weiss, we would not be where we are now. To Weiss!