If retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf is serious about wanting to help people with real diseases, then he would begin by pressuring lawmakers into cutting the federal funding of research on, and putative treatment of, fake diseases ("Operation NIH funding," Op-Ed, Thursday). The American people have been bamboozled into believing that addiction and mental illness are literal rather than metaphorical diseases. Psychiatrists and other members of the mental "health" profession are responsible for this, which has been done in the name of caring for people. What they really care about is their federally funded salaries.
     Cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, heart disease, AIDS, etc. — these are real diseases. They meet the nosological criteria for disease classification. Addiction and mental illnesses are fake diseases. They are not included in standard textbooks on pathology because they do not meet the nosological criteria for disease classification. Diseases are physical. Behavior refers to something that people do. Labeling bad behavior a disease and equating it with physical disease is illogical, unscientific and cruel to people who have real diseases.
     A good way to help people with real diseases is by eliminating the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The money saved could be used to help people with real diseases.
     
     JEFFREY A. SCHALER
     Silver Spring

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Updated at 12:00 a.m.