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Esther Crawley - talk 17th Nov Mood disorders Centre, Exeter Uni

Countrygirl

Senior Member
Messages
5,429
Location
UK
My impression is that Dr Crawley needs help. Briefly, when at the meeting, I felt sorry for her. I don't enjoy watching people making a fool of themselves. Then I remembered the case histories of the children she has harmed.........some severely......................and the stories of the distressed Mums and Dads who encounter her either directly or via other paediatricians, all of whom defer to her. I no longer felt sad for her.

She seems to be completely unable to comprehend reality and maybe really doesn't understand that she is in fact inflicting harm on very sick children and damaging families.

Her friends need to take her aside and spell the facts out to her.

If she is a decent person, in years to come, what she is doing now will come back to haunt her and what a terrible burden she will have to bear!

However................I have one problem with this interpretation of events...........................she does lie................we know she lies...............she knows she lies.......................and she avoids all contact with respected scientists who refute her nonsense.

I still wouldn't want to go into old age bearing her conscience. What a terrible legacy she is leaving behind her!

Her grandfather of whom she is rightly so proud would be ashamed of his granddaughter.

Her only hope of regaining any credibility is to apologise for her abuse of science and her harming of children and their families.

We do, after all, have the proof............legal proof.

She is finished................it may take a little longer ....................but the end game is in sight.
 

thegodofpleasure

Player in a Greek Tragedy
Messages
207
Location
Matlock, Derbyshire, Uk
My impression is that Dr Crawley needs help. Briefly, when at the meeting, I felt sorry for her. I don't enjoy watching people making a fool of themselves. Then I remembered the case histories of the children she has harmed.........some severely......................and the stories of the distressed Mums and Dads who encounter her either directly or via other paediatricians, all of whom defer to her. I no longer felt sad for her..

I completely agree with you @Countrygirl

However, I would like to add to your list of those whom she has harmed.

Firstly, Dr Nigel Speight, who, as I understand it, was unjustly subjected to a witch hunt as a direct result of a complaint she made to the GMC.

Then there is David Tuller, whom she has undoubtedly libelled.

She has also denigrated and besmirched the whole M.E. community, with her made-up and grossly exaggerated stories of harassment, and the very fact that she continually misrepresents the nature of the illness.

She should therefore take responsibility for the entirety of her wrong-doing ......... but I'm not holding my breath.
 

Countrygirl

Senior Member
Messages
5,429
Location
UK
I completely agree with you @Countrygirl

However, I would like to add to your list of those whom she has harmed.

Firstly, Dr Nigel Speight, who, as I understand it, was unjustly subjected to a witch hunt as a direct result of a complaint she made to the GMC.

Then there is David Tuller, whom she has undoubtedly libelled.

She has also denigrated and besmirched the whole M.E. community, with her made-up and grossly exaggerated stories of harassment, and the very fact that she continually misrepresents the nature of the illness.

She should therefore take responsibility for the entirety of her wrong-doing ......... but I'm not holding my breath.

Yes, she has harmed so many, TGOP. You are quite right! She is a very destructive person who, in practice, appears not to care one whit about the welfare of others, as she damages those in her way as she scrabbles up the greasy pole.
 

Large Donner

Senior Member
Messages
866
Yes, she has harmed so many, TGOP. You are quite right! She is a very destructive person who, in practice, appears not to care one whit about the welfare of others, as she damages those in her way as she scrabbles up the greasy pole.

The funny thing is she has arrived late on the scene and the pole is greasier than ever. It really seems the Wizards, White and Wessely who keep claiming to be retired, have gone very quiet as they puppet her in the background with their increasing ages, weak backs and diminishing strength trying to winch her up the pole desperately, shouting heave hoe, cowardly trying to play her as the winch pulls back on them and the grease is all over the stage under their slippery feet.
 

Countrygirl

Senior Member
Messages
5,429
Location
UK
New response by Bristol University here:

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/red/documents/research-governance/University of Bristol statements about CFS_ME research.pdf

University of Bristol statement about harassment of academic staff

The University has long been aware that Professor Crawley has experienced significant harassment and personal abuse over several years. This has included but is not limited to: vexatious FOIs; cyber stalking; malicious emails; blogs/tweets and other social media posts that could be regarded as defamatory; unsubstantiated complaints to multiple institutions including Ethics Committees, The University of Bristol, The Advertising Standard Authority, the GMC and funders. The University considers this behaviour to be unacceptable. The University has previously reviewed Professor Crawley’s research projects and found they are being conducted in line with applicable research ethics and governance requirements. The University has supported Professor Crawley in dealing with the harassment and provided legal, governance and research advice and support when required. November 2017 University of Bristol statement about the CFS/

November 2017
 

Kati

Patient in training
Messages
5,497
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Deepwater

Senior Member
Messages
208
They seem to have changed their minds, strangely. Perhaps it just refers to very recent events.

Says "long been aware". She must have made them aware of how their honest response to the FOI (from Tymes Trust) has been used to show her up as a liar and defamer of the sick, so they have stepped in to rescue her. Stinks.
Can anything be done to confirm publicly that the FOI requests she has received are not vexatious, that attempts to engage her in debate online do not constitute "cyber stalking", and that the complaints made about her were made for very good reason?
 

Countrygirl

Senior Member
Messages
5,429
Location
UK
Short mention by David about his encouraged departure from EC's meeting:
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David Tuller
I asked her one question--why she accused me of libel--and was asked to leave, and I left without making a scene. She didn't threaten to call the police at that moment, but she mentioned the police in some capacity that I didn't quite hear. She seemed to state pretty clearly that she'd had to have Bristol send me a cease and desist letter. I'd heard about this desire of hers in June, at the Invest in ME conference, but I certainly have never received such a letter from Bristol. So I'm not sure what she was talking about, or if the letter got lost in the mail or in the ether on the way to my inbox.

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Short mention by David about his encouraged departure from EC's meeting:
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David Tuller
I asked her one question--why she accused me of libel--and was asked to leave, and I left without making a scene. She didn't threaten to call the police at that moment, but she mentioned the police in some capacity that I didn't quite hear. She seemed to state pretty clearly that she'd had to have Bristol send me a cease and desist letter. I'd heard about this desire of hers in June, at the Invest in ME conference, but I certainly have never received such a letter from Bristol. So I'm not sure what she was talking about, or if the letter got lost in the mail or in the ether on the way to my inbox.

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I thank you for your work in this area and believe that it is crucial to keep asking questions of these harmful people who have such little understanding of the suffering they cause. Its marvellous that she knows that she will have to face you after false accusations. Sometimes our battle gets too much to deal with as well as all the other strains of having ME so I hope you and others can maintain the pressure and make headway.
 

ScottTriGuy

Stop the harm. Start the research and treatment.
Messages
1,402
Location
Toronto, Canada
She is a very destructive person who, in practice, appears not to care one whit about the welfare of others, as she damages those in her way as she scrabbles up the greasy pole.

She may be a sociopath, in which case we're delusional in hoping she'll do the right thing.

For Crawley, the 'right thing' is advancing her career. Not stopping the harm she inflicts, she's incapable of seeing it. Very Trump-like.
 
Messages
88
An academic spoke in an open meeting. An attendee who had listened quietly throughout the presentation used the Q&A to ask a question about a claim she had made in it, and another which gave her the opportunity, in a very supportive environment, to explain why she has previously claimed something which doesn't appear to be the case.

She's clearly returned to Bristol Uni and told them she'd been harassed / personally abused. It's a good thing there's a video of this terrible experience as I guess it will help Bristol to understand just what she's asking them to publicly denounce as unacceptable behaviour.
 

Large Donner

Senior Member
Messages
866
The problem we have is she always has the default position, "Its not my fault everyone else conflated ME with the tired teenagers I work with". My work has always been on mood disordered teens with fatigue that is chronic."
 

HowToEscape?

Senior Member
Messages
626
She may be a sociopath, in which case we're delusional in hoping she'll do the right thing.

For Crawley, the 'right thing' is advancing her career. Not stopping the harm she inflicts, she's incapable of seeing it. Very Trump-like.

Ummm, This is entirely unrelated to Donald Trump. Let’s not drag that whole business into it.

Those who came before Trump had 30 years to address our disease. Each of them blew it off, And the president before Trump had specifically promised to investigate it.
 
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20
The thing that I find strange about Dr Crawley is why-if she believes CFS is a disorder of the mind- she is treating patients. She should be sending patients elsewhere.

My understanding is that Crawley rejects the 'false beliefs and deconditioning model' in favour of acknowledging an unspecified biomedical basis for 'CFS', however she strangely advocates therapeutic interventions, namely CBT and GET, based on this unevaluated psychosocial theory.

She argues however, again with no specific evidence base relating to chronic fatigue or to CFS or ME, that psychological and behavioural intervention can cure this so far unspecified biomedical substrate. This presumably explains her focus on sleep patterns where behavioural changes may potentially have measurable neurophysiological factors [error should read 'effects 'not 'factors], though there is no evidence indicating any relevance to CFS/ME. It is strange that she proposes that she is changing a biomedical condition, but makes no attempt to define or measure it. Indeed she appears to disregard the wealth of international research that ought to be very relevant to her theoretical understanding. It does suggest a possible scientific motive for her involvement in MEGA, though I don't understand how the other MEGA researchers are comfortable with this seemingly 'magical thinking'.

Perhaps this also explains her interest in NLP as illustrated by the Lightening Process which also claims that behavioural intervention changes brain function. Her SMILE trial may prove to be the reductio ad absurdum of her double thinking.
 
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