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Opinion Piece: Current Psychiatry and its Discontents

me/cfs 27931

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If you were looking for a thread to laugh at or rant about this weekend, I've done my best to serve up the goods. :cool:

This opinion piece by the psychiatric-historian Robert Kaplan begins and ends whining about sorry state of his profession.

Strangely (or predictably?), in the middle it lashes out at patient groups being a significant part of the problem, particularly the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome "lobby" (oddly referred to as "CSF").

Robert M. Kaplan said:
Current Psychiatry and its Discontents
Robert M. Kaplan
April 8, 2017
http://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2017/04/current-psychiatry-discontents/
(excerpt, spacing added)

The empowered consumers, using the internet and social media, band together against what they regard as an oppressive and remote agency, namely their doctors.

Nowhere is this better seen than the festering, if not venomous, public debate over chronic fatigue syndrome (CSF). Despite decades of research, the cause of CSF remains unknown; no one has been able to prove that it is viral, the totemic belief of the CSF lobby.

And “lobby” is the right word, the tendentious result of patients devolving into that sociological buzz word: consumers with all the rights and expectations of supermarket customers selecting what they regard as the best washing powders.

Psychiatrists are often regarded as the enemy for refusing unequivocally to accept that they have a purely physical illness and nothing else. This is, of course, Cartesian dualism gone mad.

CSF consists of three overlapping clusters of musculo-skeletal, sleep and psychiatric symptoms. It is quite appropriate to treat all three clusters to provide relief to sufferers. This is not acceptable to the CSF lobby, however, whose vehemence towards psychiatry is approaching something akin to “illness terrorism”.

Take a look at some of the threats being expressed on some websites devoted to and populated by CSF sufferers. The likelihood of such vehemence being translated into physical assault, perhaps even murder, cannot be excluded.

So disruptive, if not dangerous are these threats that Sir Simon Wessely, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, has announced his withdrawal from research in the field.

"Take a look at some of the threats being expressed on some websites devoted to and populated by CSF sufferers. The likelihood of such vehemence being translated into physical assault, perhaps even murder, cannot be excluded."

We would be wise to steer clear of such online hives of scum and villainy. :oops::cautious::wide-eyed::thumbsup:

"Illness Terrorist"... where do I get the t-shirt? :rolleyes:
 

Cheesus

Senior Member
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1,292
Location
UK
So disruptive, if not dangerous are these threats that Sir Simon Wessely, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, has announced his withdrawal from research in the field.

Don't they say you should never give in to (illness) terrorists? Wessely has really let the side down here. Next thing you know we're going to be holding entire Middle Eastern countries to ransom.
 

Snow Leopard

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South Australia
Another one for the file...

Angry old man shouts at cloud.

The problem with Psychiatry is that historically it's littered with many examples of accepting poor quality science and implementing it into standard practise - this is changing, but there seems to be a lot of resistance amongst the older practitioners who are unwilling to accept that their practise has been compromised for years due to relying on poor quality science. Things will change as these people retire and the younger generation take over (a generation raised on actually reading the underlying science since it is much more easily accessible now through the internet).
 
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me/cfs 27931

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shirt3.png
 
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Hajnalka

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Haven't read through all of it, but it's appalling. Using words like "victim culture" and ridiculing PTSD ("pseudo-epidemic").

Nowhere is this better seen than the festering, if not venomous, public debate over chronic fatigue syndrome (CSF).
My sister (a doctor!) sometimes says "CSF" by accident, and so does my father. I'm mostly bed-bound but my imaginary illness is apparently still not serious enough for them to at least remember its name. But to repeatedly not get it right in an article is even worse and extremely embarrassing.

Take a look at some of the threats being expressed on some websites devoted to and populated by CSF sufferers. The likelihood of such vehemence being translated into physical assault, perhaps even murder, cannot be excluded.
PR? At first I had to laugh really hard. To claim that we murder in the name of CSF (great, now I have an earworm)... But as funny as this sounds, I think there is a line crossed -- we are used to a lot, but even with ME there must be a line (somewhere at the horizon), what is appropriate to say about its sufferers.

From the comments:
Very informative. Well done, Dr Kaplan.

However, I , for one, appreciate the ‘soul scream’ from Dr.Kaplan and applaud his decision to go public. I am certain – it was not easy. Thank you, Doctor.

:aghhh:
 
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A.B.

Senior Member
Messages
3,780
Sometimes I wish we had a well organized international patient organization that could take up the job of combating misinformation.

The author obviously does not know that the story about violent activists was circulated to silence PACE trial critics and prevent independent scrutiny of the data (which later showed the CBT/GET to be ineffective, contrary to the claim by the authors).
 

A.B.

Senior Member
Messages
3,780
Does the author have any competing interests, I wonder?
Perhaps the savvy can follow the trail:
http://rmkaplan.com.au/

Nice find.

Edward Shorter offers "CONSULTING IN LITIGATION AND CORPORATE PROBLEM-SOLVING." We can guess what kind of cases he specialises in.

The conflicts of interest of Wessely, White, Sharpe, Chalder are known.

Do the Dutch psychobabblers have conflicts of interest?
 

Snow Leopard

Hibernating
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5,902
Location
South Australia
Are you sure this isn't satire?

Fact is psychiatrists are taught to deal with violence as part of their training, it's almost expected that they will be faced with violence. ME and CFS are actually unusual compared to quite a number of psychiatric conditions where threats of violence are often carried out.

The handful of angry militant ME and CFS patients (who don't understand how unhelpful threatening behaviour really is), don't actually carry out their threats because they're often too ill to organise anything or even leave the house. ;)
 

Jonathan Edwards

"Gibberish"
Messages
5,256
If you were looking for a thread to laugh at or rant about this weekend, I've done my best to serve up the goods. :cool:

This opinion piece by the psychiatric-historian Robert Kaplan begins and ends whining about sorry state of his profession.

Strangely (or predictably?), in the middle it lashes out at patient groups being a significant part of the problem, particularly the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome "lobby" (oddly referred to as "CSF").



"Take a look at some of the threats being expressed on some websites devoted to and populated by CSF sufferers. The likelihood of such vehemence being translated into physical assault, perhaps even murder, cannot be excluded."

We would be wise to steer clear of such online hives of scum and villainy. :oops::cautious::wide-eyed::thumbsup:

"Illness Terrorist"... where do I get the t-shirt? :rolleyes:

What a gem. As a festering, if not venomous, ME terrorist I am amazed that my cover has been blown like this. Maybe the reference to CSF reflects the fact that he might do well to have his CSF checked. Someone suggested he was old but he seems to be quite middle aged. Maybe Alzheimer's is setting in early, poor chap. Better get those plugs in for Simon quick or the knighthood might be too late? This is a complete farce. Kelly Anne Conway and alternative facts eat your heart out - this is where the real nuthouse resides. I should be more circumspect with my language as an eminent emeritus from one of the leading medical schools in the world. But when you get pantomime stuff like this what can you do?