.
Edward Shorter has been at it for decades, like a broken record. He is a long term crony of Elaine Showalter (author of
'Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media: Alien abduction, Chronic fatigue syndrome, Satanic ritual abuse, Recovered memory, Gulf War syndrome, Multiple Personality Syndrome' (NY: Columbia University Press, 1997) .
They both assert that ME is the latest version of cultural hysteria/psychosomatic conditions which mutate in form over the centuries. Both Shorter and Showalter assert that ME is hysteria contagously spread via the media. You read about it in newspapers, or from the TV, and then catch it. That is a devilishly clever and tricky construction - its just as contagious as flu - but its not physical, its hysterical.
A deep vein of misogeny runs through both Shorter and Showalter's writing on the subject; their writing on ME (they mostly call it CFS) in particular descends into vitriol. Showalter is a Professor of English Literature and Freudian Feminist Literary critic who claimed that her mother whom she was estranged from had suffered from "several hysterical conditions". Puzzling for a woman, a self proclaimed feminist, to express such deep hostility toward other women (especially sick ones) - well, don't ask me why, ask her - she's the Freudian!
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http://articles.philly.com/1992-04-01/news/26002683_1_chronic-epstein-barr-virus-chronic-fatigue-cfs
‘Is Chronic Fatigue Psychosomatic? It's Time To Think’
by Scott Huler, Special to the Daily News
Posted: April 01,
1992
‘Although science has not yet found a cause for chronic fatigue syndrome, a University of Toronto professor claims it's contagious and says he knows how it's transmitted.
You get it from the media, says Edward Shorter, a medical history professor and author of a new book on psychosomatic illness.
Chronic fatigue syndrome, also called chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome (CFIDS) and chronic Epstein-Barr virus (CEBV), is the widely discussed malady whose sufferers complain of complete exhaustion; flu symptoms like fever, sore throat and swollen lymph nodes; aches and pains; headaches; joint soreness; and trouble sleeping.
If you're clutching your throat and gasping, "Good grief! I've had all those!" you're proving Shorter's point.
In fact, in his book "From Paralysis to Fatigue: A History of Psychosomatic Illness in the Modern Era" (Free Press, $19.95) Shorter contends that CFS is a model psychosomatic disease.
But it's by no means the first.
Throughout history, psychosomatic illnesses have said a great deal not only about their patients but about society at large, Shorter says.
For example, one of the most commonly cited psychosomatic illnesses was paralysis. In the 19th century, women would become suddenly bedridden, almost completely paralyzed.
This occurred, Shorter notes in his book, during a time when women were not expected to work or express themselves or even spend much time outside their homes. It was natural, Shorter says, for an unhappy woman to take "her inability to leave the house . . . and develop the symptom of paralysis."
Doctors completed the cycle: "Doctors were accustomed to seeing women as weak, frail creatures, so it made sense to them" that women inexplicably would become paralyzed.
In our own time, said Shorter, statistics show that people are working harder and longer than in the past. So it's only natural that CFS offers them a way to take a long break without "the shame of being a quitter."
But what really earmarks CFS as a psychosomatic illness, says Shorter, is its vague symptoms. The official guide used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to identify CFS lists 11 symptoms, including muscle discomfort, prolonged fatigue and generalized headaches.
"The symptoms fit so perfectly that they fit anyone," Shorter said.
Yet there is no physiological evidence to explain these vague symptoms, nothing to view under the microscope, he says.
Psychosomatic diseases are always associated with symptoms that are easy to ''somatize," which means cause psychologically. Swollen glands and low fevers, two complaints associated with CFS, are easy to produce, according to Shorter.
Another hallmark of psychosomatic illness is that the patient will absolutely insist that he does not have a psychological illness, and will often change doctors "every time the P-word is used," said Shorter.
Chronic fatigue sufferers, like June J. McInerny, are certain Shorter is wrong. McInerny, executive director of the Collegeville, Pa.-based CFIDS Central Support Network, suffered pain and memory impairment so debilitating that she was bedridden for 10 months. She is convinced her problem isn't psychosomatic: "I know that there's some little bugger in there causing this."
Scientists in labs all over the country are looking for that little bugger.
Among them is Dr. Elaine DeFreitas, of Philadelphia's Wistar Institute, who says she may have isolated the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome. After years of work, "we've isolated an agent, it looks like a retrovirus, and we've isolated it in seven out of eight patients," DeFreitas said. She admits that her evidence is hardly conclusive - "You really have to do huge studies, of hundreds, of thousands" to get definitive results - but her studies represent good science done by a respected researcher.
The Centers for Disease Control officially recognizes CFS. According to spokeswoman Kay Golan, the CDC has moved chronic fatigue into its viral disease unit, where a multi-year surveillance project is seeking the syndrome's cause. And the National Institutes of Health puts out official brochures on chronic fatigue.
That's a lot of attention for a disease that doesn't exist.
Which is just the point, says Shorter. The widespread interest in CFS reveals a great deal about the way people get their medical information today.
In the past, psychosomatic illnesses were publicized through word of mouth or through misinformed doctors. Today, information about current illnesses spreads the same way but more quickly because of modern communications, especially television.
That's why a fad disease - like last decade's hypoglycemia, or chronic fatigue syndrome - can so quickly reach epidemic proportions, Shorter said.
Shorter is particularly critical of the media's role in nurturing these epidemics. Little critical thought goes into many of the articles written and TV shows produced, he said. Even worse, there is frequently an inappropriate balance between the proponents of the disease and responsible medical authorities. Both sides of these debates are presented as equally credible, which they often are not, said Shorter. "Responsible medical voices who are completely skeptical are really never heard."
Sufferers of chronic fatigue, much like early AIDS patients, become advocates when they fail to find help from traditional medicine. CFS patients are extremely well informed on their illness, aware of current research and scientific publications. Local and national CFIDS newsletters are filled with reports on cutting-edge research.
But Shorter says this is just another characteristic of psychosomatic illness. To escape the taint of psychological illness, he said, sufferers ''all cite medical information very proudly."
Shorter's book does not try to explain why people develop psychosomatic illnesses; it merely addresses the illnesses that have developed over the years and the method by which patients learn what symptoms will gain them the sympathetic ear of a physician.
Nowadays, he said, "word travels so fast" that those disposed to psychosomatic illness can get a virtual blueprint of the symptoms they need to be diagnosed with the latest disease.
Shorter believes these alternative sources of information contribute to the problem by undermining the authority of doctors. To help patients with illnesses that may have emotional causes, Shorter said, doctors need to be informal psychotherapists. But with so many alternative sources of information, patients are less likely to trust the advice of their doctors, especially if told their disease is psychosomatic.’
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