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Professor Simon Wessely says he is misunderstood

Messages
646
but some unfortunate children receive too much attention of the wrong sort, that being of the psych input.
Are you seriously proposing that children whose parents have 'diagnosed' them with M.E/CFS are to be exempted from the normal processes of health evaluation ? That simply isn't going to happen, the psychological and psychiatric evaluation of children whose health impairments do not respond readily to prescribed interventions, is going to continue to be a standard part of healthcare delivered to children and young people. This is a societal level expectation and essentially a fact of life that parents have to live with, either as a welcome support or under sufferance. The no psych option isn't an achievable reality (at least not any time soon) and adopting an oppositional position will not achieve any improvement in clinical practice for either those young people whose sole health impairment falls under M.E/CFS, or those who have a comorbid psychiatric problem or those who are actually experiencing inappropriate or even malicious interventions via their parents.

IVI
 

pollycbr125

Senior Member
Messages
353
Location
yorkshire
personally I know of one family at this present time who are battling education, doctors and social workers with regards to their child , they are being bombarded with threats of legal action and have no idea where to turn .

I also know of another family who were so desperate to get their child proper medical care and where at their wits end after the treatment they had also recieved from social workers , education and doctors over here that they emigrated .

Children diagnosed with ME in the UK are treated appallingly from all sides . I don,t post often due to my health but I really think some people need to wake up to what is happening in this country .
 
Messages
56
Are you seriously proposing that children whose parents have 'diagnosed' them with M.E/CFS are to be exempted from the normal processes of health evaluation ? That simply isn't going to happen, the psychological and psychiatric evaluation of children whose health impairments do not respond readily to prescribed interventions, is going to continue to be a standard part of healthcare delivered to children and young people. This is a societal level expectation and essentially a fact of life that parents have to live with, either as a welcome support or under sufferance. The no psych option isn't an achievable reality (at least not any time soon) and adopting an oppositional position will not achieve any improvement in clinical practice for either those young people whose sole health impairment falls under M.E/CFS, or those who have a comorbid psychiatric problem or those who are actually experiencing inappropriate or even malicious interventions via their parents.

IVI

Is not ME or CFS diagnosed by doctors? Where have these parents [bold]unilaterally[/bold] diagnosed ME/CFS?
 
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1,446
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'One of the facts reported in the Tymes Trust Reports states that whilst MSBP/Child Protection Investigations in the wider population are 1 in every 100,000, the rates of investigations of families of children with ME runs at 7 in a hundred.'

the relevant links are in my previous posts on this thread.
 

maryb

iherb code TAK122
Messages
3,602
Location
UK
Are you seriously proposing that children whose parents have 'diagnosed' them with M.E/CFS are to be exempted from the normal processes of health evaluation ? That simply isn't going to happen, the psychological and psychiatric evaluation of children whose health impairments do not respond readily to prescribed interventions, is going to continue to be a standard part of healthcare delivered to children and young people. This is a societal level expectation and essentially a fact of life that parents have to live with, either as a welcome support or under sufferance. The no psych option isn't an achievable reality (at least not any time soon) and adopting an oppositional position will not achieve any improvement in clinical practice for either those young people whose sole health impairment falls under M.E/CFS, or those who have a comorbid psychiatric problem or those who are actually experiencing inappropriate or even malicious interventions via their parents.IVI

Sorry... is psychological and psychiatric evaluation a normal part of health evaluation of a physical illness?
Of course health impairmants caused by ME/CFS do not respond to prescribed interventions because these interventions are Pacing, GET and the like dictated by Wessley and co. supporters.
Give me the no psych option any day if I was a parent of a child with ME. And as for an oppositional position not achieving any improvement in clinical practice, what have we benfitted so far from so called clinical practice? Zilch and even less than that a drowning of us all in the mire of 'their interpretation of what ME is'
 

Holmsey

Senior Member
Messages
286
Location
Scotland, UK
W
personally I know of one family at this present time who are battling education, doctors and social workers with regards to their child , they are being bombarded with threats of legal action and have no idea where to turn .

I also know of another family who were so desperate to get their child proper medical care and where at their wits end after the treatment they had also recieved from social workers , education and doctors over here that they emigrated .

Children diagnosed with ME in the UK are treated appallingly from all sides . I don,t post often due to my health but I really think some people need to wake up to what is happening in this country .

Way to little information, what is the battle, why is legal action being threatened, you don't even say if this child has a formal diagnosis of ME.

'Children diagnosed with ME in the UK are treated appallingly from all sides', in what way, how many, by whom, what would you have them do differently?

Sorry if it frustrates you that I'm not immediately on board but waking up to my understanding means opening up to the truth, the reality, not exaggeration or generalization so please clarify in a calm and rational way exactly what you are alluding?
 
Messages
1,446
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IN VITRO wrote to me: “In denial” – where would you be without Freud ?"


HA HA!! A lot better off - .... The word hysteria should have been buried with Mr Freud, along with his literary criticism disguised as 'medicine' -

- and we'd be a lot better off without the influence of Eddie Bernaise (Sigmund Freuds nephew and the inventor of psychological marketing) and Anna Freud, whose child psychology work in Hampstead, London, is lauded by professionals, but NOT lauded by the youngsters who had the misfortune to be referred to her -

The literary influence in psychiatry has certainly been exploited more recently by the likes of Elaine Showalter in her supposed academic books - "The Female Malady" . (about women, literature and hysteria)... and "Hystories".... which is basically tabloid trash for intelligent people;

Elaine Showalters' 'Hystories' is a book that sails VERY close to the wind of holocaust denial, by the way.

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1,446
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There are some worrying misconstructions and distorted, dismissive, portrayals of parents of ME children going on on this forum - .. and typical of the kind of knee-jerk dismissive portrayals of personal experience as 'emotive'.


From what I have read of the (Parent's) posts, they are perfectly calm and rational -
 

pollycbr125

Senior Member
Messages
353
Location
yorkshire
W


Way to little information, what is the battle, why is legal action being threatened, you don't even say if this child has a formal diagnosis of ME.

'Children diagnosed with ME in the UK are treated appallingly from all sides', in what way, how many, by whom, what would you have them do differently?

Sorry if it frustrates you that I'm not immediately on board but waking up to my understanding means opening up to the truth, the reality, not exaggeration or generalization so please clarify in a calm and rational way exactly what you are alluding?


Sorry do you want me to post names addresses and personal details ? telephone numbers perhaps so you can verify what im saying is true ?

I was merley posting of 2 cases that I know of seeing as folk dont seem to belive that such cases exist .. I worked in education myself and have had dealings with social services in a professional capacity so I am well aware of the system and what it entails .I worked with sevely disabled children with a variety of disabilities and some of the things ive witnessed over the years are shocking so it comes as no suprise to me that children with ME and their families are having to fight doctors , social workers and education .

I wont be posting any personal details of these people that would be wrong neither will I go into detail of what the cases involve as one is ongoing .

I would have thought the fact that one family emigrated as it was the only way they would ever get proper treatement and care said a lot about the state of things here .

Both children have diagnosis of ME I would have thought that pretty obvious seeing as im posting on and ME forum id hardly be talking about a kid with cerebal palsy would I ?
 

maryb

iherb code TAK122
Messages
3,602
Location
UK
In between, you could study CFS as a hysterical plague on MA literature courses at Birkbeck and Reading universities!!!
:D:D
 
Messages
1,446
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The word hysteria should have been buried with Mr Freud, along with his literary criticism disguised as 'medicine' -

- and we'd be a lot better off without the influence of Eddie Bernaise (Sigmund Freuds nephew and the inventor of psychological marketing) and Anna Freud, whose child psychology work in Hampstead, London, is lauded by professionals, but NOT lauded by the youngsters who had the misfortune to be referred to her -

The literary influence in psychiatry has certainly been exploited more recently by the likes of Elaine Showalter in her supposed academic books - "The Female Malady" . (about women, literature and hysteria)... and "Hystories".... which is basically tabloid trash for intelligent people;

Elaine Showalters' 'Hystories' is a book that sails VERY close to the wind of holocaust denial, by the way... those who bother to read it (or who are well enough to read it) may note .....

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1,446
@ Mary B - I so agree with you!


Unfortunately, a very huge number of massively intelligent and educated academic people fell for Elaine Showalter's total fantasy Bullshitt about her book 'Hystories' .......


They fell for the fantastical, but so very enticing, idea that physical diseases such as ME, are simply a case of social mass hysteria spread by watching too many Opra Winfrey programmes!!



Showalter suggested in her book and interviews that the supposed 'Hysterical Plagues' of the late 20th Century (ME, Gulf War Syndrome) were threatening the very civilisation we inhabit ....


Interesting that such fantastical theories of threats to civilisation from 'Hysterical Plagues' of people with 'psychosocial' diseases, such as ME and GWS were prevalent in the late 1990's ......



..... Predating the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York on 11th September 2001.


Now, in 2012, Elaine Showalters media-derived hyperbole and tabloid style writing can be seen for the fatuous 'Millenium Fantasy' Wild Media Driven Hyperabole that it was.....



Post 9/11 we are concerned with the actions of Actual Terrorists - Not with the Supposed 'threat' of physically sick people with Neuro-immune diseases


So, theories such as Elaine Showalters, appear, in restrospect, to be fantastical and fatuous and professionally self indulgent, and self serving in the extreme.



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barbc56

Senior Member
Messages
3,657
I had never heard of this woman nor the book so I just did a search and her book is something I would not be interested in reading.. Even though the recovered-memory movement, multiple personality syndrome, satanic ritual abuse and alien abduction scenarios are fascinating phenomena, I would choose another author to read about these subjects.

Freud is basically studied in a historical context as he is, after all, considered the father of psychology. Beyond that, his theories are mostly discounted in today's world. We are way beyond Freudian theory, even behaviorism, especially in the United States. In fact I think the only place that offers psychoanalysis is in New York City.

Books like this such as The Secret, are not taken seriously by the medical profession unless you count some forms of alternative medicine. I don't care for Wesseley but you can't even come close to comparing him to this kind of tripe.

However don't discount the alien theory as the following is scientific proof that aliens cause CFS/ME.:lol:

http://www.abduct.com/features/f10.php
 
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1,446
I had never heard of this woman nor the book so I just did a search and believe me other than her take on, the recovered-memory movement, multiple personality syndrome, satanic ritual abuse and alien abduction scenarios which are fascinating phenomena, her book does not sound like my cup of tea.

However don't discount the alien theory as the following is scientific proof that aliens cause CFS/ME.

http://www.abduct.com/features/f10.php



Hi Barb!

Yes indeed - the idea that ME is just like belief in Alien Abduction was all the rage in British and International Broadsheet newspapers in 1997 and 1998! The UK Arts, Inteligentsia, Literary Critic and Feminist Academic reviewers all agreed with Showalter!


Oh Boy! The media insanity drivel written about 'Hystories' in 1997/8 should shame the Broadsheets - especially The Independent on Sunday!


It just happens that Professor Wessely was the one and only doctor whom Elaine Showalter interviewed for her 'academic' ("cough") book 'Hystories'.....


Elaine Showalter especially denigrated the Incline Village doctors Cheney and Peterson - in retrospect one does suspect that is because they had identified an infectious epidemic of ME in their town/region in 1985/6.

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barbc56

Senior Member
Messages
3,657
WildCat you might want to go back and read my post again as a lot out of the message when I copied and pasted from a word document was missing.

If you want to know the honest truth, I think books like Osler's Web are in the same catagory but don't want to debate this as it's my opinion.
 

barbc56

Senior Member
Messages
3,657
Hi Barb!

Yes indeed - the idea that ME is just like belief in Alien Abduction was all the rage in British and International Broadsheet newspapers in 1997 and 1998! The Literary Critic and Feminist Academic reviewers all agreed with Showalter!

It just happens that Professor Wessely was the one and only doctor whom Elaine Showalter interviewed for her 'academic' ("cough") book 'Hystories'.....

Elaine Showalter especially denigrated the Incline Village doctors Cheney and Peterson - in retrospect one does suspect that is because they had identified an infectious epidemic of ME in their town/region in 1985/6..

Relatively speaking, our medical knowledge was not as sophisticated as it is today. Physicians went by what was known at the time. Yes, it had unfortunate consequences but I don't believe that that it was done maliciously then nor now. It's what he believes. I am not saying that I agree with him. I'm just stating my opinion.

Hindsight is 20/20, eh?

Barb C.:>)
 
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1,446
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Oh REALLY!!

Elaine Showalter's 'Hystories' is now an International Joke!!! -

The SIGNIFICANT medical research information on ME available at the time (1997) was not referred to by Professor Wessely's acknowledged friend Elaine Showalter in her tabloid-style media-appealing book 'Hystories'.


Professor Showalter had writiten a number of feminist literature academic textbooks, but had never achieved an International Book signing tour until the titillating tome Hystories, that constructed and portrayed people with ME and Gulf War Syndrome as Alien Abduction Loonies.....

Professor Showalter was amply enabled with her book by liberally quoting Professor Wessely's media friend, Caroline Richmond.





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alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
I had never heard of this woman nor the book so I just did a search and her book is something I would not be interested in reading.. Even though the recovered-memory movement, multiple personality syndrome, satanic ritual abuse and alien abduction scenarios are fascinating phenomena, I would choose another author to read about these subjects.

Freud is basically studied in a historical context as he is, after all, considered the father of psychology. Beyond that, his theories are mostly discounted in today's world. We are way beyond Freudian theory, even behaviorism, especially in the United States. In fact I think the only place that offers psychoanalysis is in New York City.

Books like this such as The Secret, are not taken seriously by the medical profession unless you count some forms of alternative medicine. I don't care for Wesseley but you can't even come close to comparing him to this kind of tripe.

However don't discount the alien theory as the following is scientific proof that aliens cause CFS/ME.:lol:

http://www.abduct.com/features/f10.php

The scientific methodologies used, the theories generated, and the techniques used to validate or test their theories are not that much better than Freud. Its not science. Its not even properly testable. They have to do substitute confirmation studies because there is no measurable target that would actually confirm their hypotheses.They can't do Gold Standard RCTs because they have to violate too many of the Gold Standard rules. The potential bias factor is so huge that they could be making most patients seriously worse and yet this would not show up due to their study designs. If they want any credibilty they need to move to objective measures, including biomarkers. They cannot claim that no markers exist, they can only claim that they are not fully understood.

Behaviourism had nothing to do with Freud. From my understanding it was in part a reaction against Freud, so you can say that is a link I guess.

Psychology preceded Freud, though I do not know what year it was formally named as psychology. Freud was a student of Charcot and a few others. I do not consider Freud the father of psychology, not by a long shot. He was the theorist who derailed the subject so far that now, well over a century later, psychology and psychiatry (or at least psychopsychiatry) still do not have a solid basis for claiming to be scientific.

Behaviorism at least had the virtue that it tried to make psychology scientific.

From a purely rationalist logical viewpoint, the idea that aliens cause ME has as much validity as the idea that ME is a psychosomatic illness, both rely on the same flawed logical argument structure, a point which I have discussed at length a few times now. Such fallacies permit almost anything to be inferred, thats why they are fallacious arguments.

Bye, Alex