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"With relative uniformity, PD patients are described as industrious, rigidly moral, stoic, serious and non impulsive." Twice this past week I've had to remind someone close to me about my "Parkinson's mask." Although I may be insanely happy, unless someone knows me what they see is a very serious face - stoic, rigid. The voice they hear is not the voice with which I speak. Given a test, most of us would not pick the answers that reflect an uninhibited lifestyle, not because we don't want to, but because we just flat out can't. I'm no longer the "life of the party." Once I would check yes to that question. Not anymore, because I know that people tend to wander away from conversations with me. I don't "look" like I'm having a good time or that I'm laughing at jokes so, when asked, I would have to say "not very much" about my level of social activity. I wonder if those researchers took this aspect of PD into consideration, or they just assumed that the PD face and the PD desire to stay home bears the true reflection of our personality. Humans, and other animals for that matter, take the physical clues of personality into consideration before we interact with others. The way we walk, hold our hands, the expression on our face, are all acting as a subconscious signal to others about our moods and that is reflected back when others interact with us. And if the analysis of their research were based on personality tests, which they claim, why would they assume that we have always had the same personality? There are "personality types" for smokers, drug users, Republicans, people who buy white bread, even for people who write to listservers. Statistics can prove anything. Ninety-nine percent of the people who develop PD drank milk when they were children. One hundred percent of us have inhaled fumes from motorcycles. Totally unscientific, but a better measure of personality, would be the study of the emotional content of the messages posted here. Of the 1,300 (is that right?) folks registered on this list, probably fewer than 100 are repeat contributors. Those 100, while not a true cross-section of the PD community, just flat don't fit the "rigidly moral, stoic, serious and non impulsive" stereotype with which the researcher try to stamp us. One thing that really upsets me is for scientist (and sociologist and psychologist and all the other "..ist") to fit me into a mold. We are as varied as the weeds in my yard and, for that, I am thankful. We may look stoic. We may sound serious. However this is one time that, just because something walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it isn't necessarily a duck. It's enough to make you quack up. -- Jerry Finch The Official PWP Dumpster Gang Hideout http://www.newcountry.nu/pd/