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The Bill Reeves thread

R

Robin

Guest
drinking copiously somewhere?

I hope the replication studies pan out, so that whenever I think of Bill Reeves I can think of a game show buzzer sounding in my head and a game show host saying, "sorry but that's the WRONG answer!"

Excellent summary about Reeves's thinking. I've heard of stress being blamed for a exacerbating illness (diabetes, high blood pressure) or triggering illness (heart disease) but never being a pathology in and of itself. If stress + a maladaptive stress gene causes ME/CFS, then why weren't Holocaust survivors bedridden for years? Women that have been raped and tortured Rwanda -- shouldn't they be sick too, in great numbers? How about residents of Baghdad that have endured years of war and bombs? Wouldn't that be an ideal place for an outbreak? Apparently, Baghdad has nothing on Incline Village and Lyndonville!

I'm not sure why people think Reeves should be commenting right now. He's probably just waiting out the secondary research like the rest of us. As a scientist, having your entire career challenged so rigorously has got to be worse than a kick in the balls.
 
G

George

Guest
Robin

Beautifully said. I think that most of us have a "life began when I was born" blind spot. History, for most of us, consists of boring data not relevant now. In living life however, sometimes it's good to have an understanding of history. The awful treatment that we have received in the past four decades is pretty understandable in the context of history. People like Dr. Reeves, Dr. Wessley and Dr. White and many of our own doctors, come from a background that has used Psychiatry to explain the scientifically unexplainable. And that mode of thinking is accepted by "us" as being acceptable. Unless, of course it is turned on "you". Then we see it for what it is, harmful at the least and devastating at its worst.

Some examples

20 years ago people who had ulcers were sent to psychiatrist to deal with stress issues. Most of them died from their ulcers. Now they know it's a bacteria.

40 years ago AIDS was a psychological problem based on the shame of living a gay or drug lifestyle, it was death sentence with no way out. Now we know it's caused by a retrovirus.

60 years ago people who were autistic where locked up in insane asylums and left to live out their lives there. Many died from neglect and abuse. Now we understand that autism is a neurological problem and are exploring ways of living with and working with autistic individuals.

80 years ago people who had epilepsy were considered by many to be possessed by evil spirits, They were shunned by families and often left to die. Now we have treatments and a better understanding of epilepsy.

And on and on back to time beginning. We think we live in such a modern time but in reality we are not far removed from the days of institutions that housed the people who didn't fit into a "normal" pattern. We still practice many, many forms of superstition in this day and age. We take those superstitions to be true and simply part of the world we live in. Some day our children's, children will look back on us and shake their heads in wonder at our ignorance as well.

If CFS gets unraveled do to the discovery of this retrovirus then we are likely looking at a huge leap in medical understanding. It's not just "us" who will be understood, validated and treated but many others as well.

That's got to be hard on those who have been lauded for their "understanding" of the human mind, who have been awarded for their fine work in areas of mind/body science. Celebrated for their papers and research that have helped so many people. And now with the publishing of a paper, the stroke of a pen as it were, their area of expertise is likely to become a lot smaller. Their beliefs that were golden only a year ago nothing but trash in the waste bin of the future.
 
T

thefreeprisoner

Guest
Among the different techniques I taught is the one, very useful in a public agency, of promoting a troublemaker right on out of the area he is messing up. For example, since Reeves is fond of psychological illnesses, put him in charge of doing some research on, say, the history of sexual abuse among the inuit tribe in Alaska, and the effects of that abuse on them and their children. Give him an impressive-sounding title and just enough money to get by. Send him to a part of Alaska where there is no communication except by radio, once in a blue moon. In other words, promote him to somewhere he can't do any harm, or at least not much harm.

While Dr. Reeves' dubious status as a whistle-blower may provide him shelter from termination, I do not think it provides protection from being promoted or transferred.

WELL PREDICTED Wildaisy!
Looks like this is exactly what's happened.

Rachel xx
 
K

_Kim_

Guest
Way to go Sarah. It warms my heart to see this forum starting to get the organizational attention it needs. Thanks so much for your efforts!!