Thanks for posting this.
I live in the States, and we do have a screwed-up conception of medicine. However, my mom has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and certainly doctors in the past have told her, "I'm not certain that's actually an illness" or even, once, "I don't believe that exists." She cheerfully tells them that's fine with her, she's just there for the MRI/ general check-up/ blood test, and they do it. No one here would believe that a doctor had the power to commit her or take away her children because having the 'psychological' diagnosis of CFS made her unfit! And there are plenty of doctors here who do 'believe' in CFS, even if they haven't ever heard of ME.
A lot of supposedly logically-minded people have a knee-jerk, prejudicial response to new information, where if it's unusual or unexpected, it's rejected out of hand. Unfortunately for the case of logic and open-mindedness, I read a study that says that the more evidence you present people who feel very firmly on one side of an issue, the MORE they adhere to their original viewpoint. They feel you're threatening their 'right' idea (and somehow, by extension, threatening them, their sense of self) and they marshal arguments against you rather than listening to your ideas.
But I think the attitude of the Brits has moved beyond even that. It's not just an insurance issue anymore ("oh, you mean we'd have to pay for this?"). Imagine the sheer number of people who would sue their physicians or the NHS if the government reversed its position, and the heaping piles of money the medical industry would lose, the doctors who would lose their jobs.
In light of this, keeping up the attitude that CFS is "just" a mental illness is pure survival for any practitioner who's sent someone with CFS away, or worse, prescribed GET and CBT. Or worse yet, pushed to get someone committed or a child removed from her parents. If you dare turn your back on this idea, you're screwed to the wall because then you're criminally and morally liable for what you've done. Perhaps this partially explains why any British doctor to treat ME/CFS like a 'real' condition is all but doused in gasoline and set on fire by their peers.
At least, this is the way I explain this sort of behavior to myself, because the other option is the moralistic "because some people are evil and also stupid" and I frankly have trouble with that. There can't
be that many Dolores Umbridges in the world.
Sorry for a bit of a rant, guys. Watching this video made my blood boil. (Not literally. I'm okay.
-J
