Looks like
Professor Andrew Scull, in his very own words, has revealed both his and Wessely's intellectual limitations; his own words have betrayed his unsuitability in dealing with a complex technical medical condition such as ME/CFS.
In this Medscape article, Scull writes that Wessely "
proclaimed that psychological and social factors were far more important in perpetuating it, and that it largely resulted from dysfunctional illness beliefs and coping behaviors. His reward was to be inundated with abuse and personal attacks, even threats on his life."
It seems that Prof Andrew Scull does not have the nous to understand that in science, the onus is on
proving your assertions; you don't just go around willy-nilly
proclaiming things with no basis. Any fool can just
proclaim something.
If Andrew Scull has this idea that science is simply about
proclaiming things, as opposed to painstakingly collecting evidence to prove them, perhaps his university tenure at the Department of Sociology, University of San Diego, should be placed under review.
Sociology at least tries to be a science, so if Andrew Scull is not up to thinking scientifically, perhaps he needs to be replaced in his university by a shaper, more scientific mind.