In a reply to one comment, Wessely said:
November 9, 2012 at 17:23
" I thought I had logged out of the blog, but still seem to be getting updates via e mail! I simply couldn’t resist replying to this.
1. In 1987 I was working at the National Hospital for Neurology in Queen Square, I wasn’t working In Glasgow. So I was describing the reactions of the neurologists, of whom there were dozens, around me. I certainly knew that Peter Behan had a different view, but as I am sure he would agree, he was in a minority of neurologists then and still is now.
2. You ask if it is true that I endorsed Elaine Showalter’s book “Hystories”/ Why did you think that I did? Not long after she published that, I was fortunate enough to meet her socially, and we have remained friends ever since. But did I endorse it? No. I didn’t agree with it. So why didn’t I make that public. Actually I did. http://www.simonwessely.com/Downloads/BookChapters/CFS_Trueillness.doc
I don’t blame you for not knowing this, not many people would take the trouble to track down a chapter in a book published by the Royal College of Physicians. But there are one or two people who have done just that, just as they track every single thing that I have ever written on anything, trying to worm out of it anything that can be in the slightest discredible to me, and if they fail to find anything, they simply distort, misquote or on occasions simply invent it. It is far easier to spread the view that I agree with Elaine on CFS than actually report the fact I debated in public with her at the Royal College, that I disagreed with her, and that we both published our dissenting views afterwards. And yes, we are still friends.
It is after enduring twenty years of this that I decided to set up the website and put as much as possible of everything that I have published, not just in journals but in the media, on the website. Indeed, if any of you have access to anything at all that I have written and isn’t there (I am afraid I am not the best archivist) please send it to me, and I will add it as well. The only things missing are things that I can;t find anymore. Go on, take the trouble to read what I have actually written, and see then if I am the person that you think I am, or have the views that others have told you that I have. And also just think for a moment who is it that is misleading you, cos I am afraid it ain’t me.
Now, this time I am going to find the unsubscribe button. Apologies for that, but I really have to return to the day job. Incidentally, far from retreating into the lager and hiding away from dissent and alternative views, I have spent a long time doing the opposite, provided that it is expressed courteously, as it usually is. I have a feeling that might have been why I was awarded the prize earlier this week – but I don;t know, because in answer to an earlier post, no, I wasn’t on the committee!
All the best, and speaking personally, I am sorry to hear that you remain unwell, and hope things improve even after all these years. I can speak from clinical experience and say that it does sometimes happen, even if we don’t always know why.
SW
http://noodlemaz.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/john-maddox-prize-2012/