DWP/UNUM/ATOS SCANDAL ~ Professor Simon Wessely: ”It is only human for doctors to view the public as foolish, uncomprehending, hysterical or malingering”

‎Black Triangle humbly implores our readers to cast their eyes on the following post before continuing on to the main article:

Emily Collingridge, 1981-2012: such a short life, such a huge legacy 

Emily Collingridge

Her memory gives us strength … 

‘After all, this planned withdrawal of support may begin with the ME population, but which group of disabled UK people who are deemed unworthy of State support on the basis of costly non-productivity will be targeted next?’

~ Margaret Williams writing in 2007 in Wessely, Woodstock and Warfare?

Responses from the DWP about the Department’s classification of ME/CFS:

‘The Norwegian Government has apologised to patients with ME/CFS for not having provided the necessary and proper health services for them.  The Deputy Director General of the Norwegian Directorate of Health recently made the following statement:

“I think that we have not cared for people with ME to a great enough extent.  I think it is correct to say that we have not established proper health care services for these people, and I regret that”  

(http://www.euro-me.org/news-Q42011-003.htm).

When might people with ME/CFS in the UK expect a similar apology from their Government as received by Norwegians with the same disorder?

Herr Professor Doktor Simon Wessely

”It is only human for doctors to view the public as foolish, uncomprehending, hysterical or malingering”

– Profesor Simon Wessely.

‘Managing patients with inexplicable health problems’

British Medical Journal, 2003:326:595-597

“The Cold Grip of Psychiatry”: Simon Wessely

There are many people now who are trying to locate the source of the ideas that our government has taken up with respect to how illness/disability is regarded in the current social and economic climate.

Since it forms the basis and the justification for their ‘reforms’ of welfare in the sphere of ‘health-related benefits’ it is quite evidently the most important factor that is affecting the lives of those who would seek support of this kind.

As ever with issues of human/social effect there is often a complexity which needs to be unravelled in order to identify streams and themes of thought and activity which have contributed to those effects.

This blog, as I’ve indicated, is an attempt to work out those factors which have brought us to the situation we experience now, the matters detailed elsewhere on the blog under the ATOS Healthcare category (Much more material can be found via my (unfinished) Blogroll links).

One theme that can be identified is the input that Psyciatry/Psychology has had on the new thinking surrounding incapacity and the relationship between health/ill-health and work.

Relatedly, Barbara Ehrenreich has written a wonderful (and darkly funny) account of the Cult of Positive Thinking that constitutes part of this psychology, I strongly recommend it for the insight it gives into how these people think.

It’s an eye-opener not only for the present day but also as to the historical origins of the perspective, which are surprising.

She illustrates how this idea, that by taking a positive slant on your life you can overcome everything from cancer to physical reality itself, has permeated western culture, often for the purpose of profit.

I recommend everything Ms Ehrenreich has written, actually, she’s like a sharp breeze of reason amid the clammy fog of disinformation we’re constantly drenched in.

So my idol aside :) let’s turn to Simon Wessely: 

On the internet there’s a huge amount of information about this man, specifically in connection with the struggles of sufferers from ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, to combat the campaign that he has led to have their condition designated as a ‘mental problem’, and the terrible consequences this has had for some people.

I’ve held back from covering him due to this fact as I feel that people should read these accounts, and view the videos, and the reports by medical professionals first hand.

It is a scandal, the worst aspect of which is the length of time it has been going on. I plan to assemble all the associated links that I’ve encountered in a separate post, later.

For now I’ll just post one link as an introduction.

It’s by Margaret Williams and was written in 2007 and published on the ME Action Org UK site. It’s entitled “Wessely, Woodstock and Warfare?”.

As I seemed to have some problems loading it in I have also saved a copy to my dropbox, here, just in case anyone has trouble accessing the original.

_____________________________________________________________________________

“By incorporating the Biopsychosocial Model into disability assessment, we can identify critically important information on obstacles to recovery, which in many cases can be tackled by an integrated package of support such as that offered in the Pathways to Work pilots and as provided by UnumProvident’s Claims Management and Rehabilitation Services”

~ Mansel Aylward

Wessely, Woodstock and Warfare?

By Margaret Williams 9th August 2007

In the UK, there seems to be an on-going war of attrition being waged against those with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) and those with other expediently-called “medically unexplained” disorders such as Gulf War Syndrome.

It will be recalled that in 2002 the British Medical Journal ran a poll on “non-diseases” with which psychiatrist Professor Simon Wessely was involved; in that poll, BMJ readers voted ME a “non-disease” along with big ears and freckles.

Despite substantial and irrefutable international evidence that ME is a complex multisystem organic disorder, Government Departments such as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its Wessely School psychiatrist advisers continue to deny the biomedical nature of ME and claim it is a psychosocial (behavioural) disorder.

The Medical Research Council erroneously classifies it as a mental disorder, as does the Institute of Psychiatry.

The entry in the recent revision of the DWP Handbook about ME, produced under the leadership of psychiatrist Professor Peter White, has been deemed by the ME Association to be unfit for purpose.

The forthcoming NICE Guideline on ME, due on 22nd August 2007, is widely believed to follow the published draft guidance, which was roundly condemned as being biased and erroneous due to the unbalanced influence of those who believe ME to be a behavioural disorder.

The NHS Plus (Department of Health) Policy Document of October 2006 (“Occupational Aspects of the Management of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: a National Guideline”) is a travesty and has been condemned by a total of 18 ME charities and organisations.

The two external assessors for this national Policy Document were psychiatrists Peter White and Michael Sharpe and their influence reflects what has been referred to by the Presiding Officer (Speaker) of the Scottish Parliament as “the cold grip of psychiatry” (www.meactionuk.org.uk/Defiance_of_Science.htm).

At a meeting on 13th July 2007 at the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) on “Pathways to Work”, Professor Mansel Aylward (see below) was a key speaker, with Professor Peter White chairing the afternoon session.

All this augers particularly badly for those with ME, especially as it is now known that ME has been specifically targeted in order to de-legitimise it in order to save society’s resources and company profits (see below).

Indeed, it seems the State believes that the upward trend in people receiving Incapacity Benefit is a cultural phenomenon rather than a health problem and the solution is not to cure the sick but to ensure that the outcome of treatment is work.

Despite the fact that the UK is a signatory to the World Health Assembly and despite the formal written acceptance by the then Health Minister (Lord Warner) in February 2004 that the UK accepts the World Health Organisation classification of ME as a neurological disorder, none of the above bodies pays the slightest heed to the WHO classification.

Further, despite having formally accepted ME as a nosological entity as long ago as 1978, the Royal Society of Medicine has now joined in this Establishment warfare of attrition.

The RSM Section of Psychiatry is currently running a competition. It is called “The Mental Health Essay Prize”. The closing date for entries is 7th January 2008. Two prizes will be awarded for an original essay on the subject of “The primary impact of psychiatric illness on physical health”.

The notice states: “Candidates might like to consider contentious disease entities such as ME from a psychiatric perspective”. 

The in-built prejudice will not go unnoticed by the ME community.

So the war of attrition seemingly gathers pace.

What is it all about?

It seems to be about social engineering and eugenics.

The continued reckless and deliberate disregard of the ever-mounting evidence of the organic nature of ME seems to show a frightening similarity to State-sanctioned eugenics.

Eugenics is a social philosophy.

It is not concerned only with selective breeding or solely with Nazi atrocities such as the extermination of undesired population groups.

Historically, eugenics has been used as a justification for coercive state-sponsored discrimination and human rights violations.

The goals of various groups advocating eugenics have been to save society’s resources (Wikipedia on-line).

From his published articles, it is undeniable that Wessely appears to be concerned about what he regards as the waste of society’s resources on those whom he believes do not merit the expenditure of such resources, which seems to include the expenditure of NHS resources entailed in investigating those with ME. Instead,he advocates a regime of “behavioural modification”.

The behaviourist school of psychology was first presented by John Watson between 1908 and 1912. In 1912 he wrote: “Psychology as the behaviourist knows it is the prediction and control of behaviour”.

Are we witnessing State efforts to exert control by insisting that ME is a behavioural disorder?

Does it no longer matter that by deliberately denying people with ME the benefits necessary for survival, both medical and financial, people with ME are at serious risk of non-survival?

Many people with ME are so sick that they are unable to contribute to the State economy but instead are financially and socially dependent upon it, so in reality is their non-survival the socially-constructed aim?

It is already established policy that the greater good must take precedence over individual need.

The war of attrition in the UK is ostensibly about the need to curb and control the escalating costs of free-for-all Incapacity Benefit.

In December 2005 Hooper et al noted:

“One of the goals of UK government both Conservative and New Labour has been and
continues to be to achieve a significant reduction in the escalating cost of sickness and
disability benefits by curtailing the number of those eligible to receive such benefits. This is clearly necessary, but a key problem lies in determining who is genuinely sick and disabled (and therefore eligible for state disability benefits) and who is capable of some form of employment”    

(http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/HOOPER_CONCERNS_ABOUT_A_COMMERCIAL_CONFLICT_OF_INTEREST.htm).

In an article dated 5th March 2005 by Marshall and Williams (“ME: who is attacking whom?”), attention was drawn to a conference entitled “Malingering and Illness Deception Meeting” that had been held on 6th-8th November 2001 at Woodstock, Oxford.

Herr Professor Doktor Simon Wessley who founded the ‘Wessley School’ asserting that behavioural therapy should be used to treat illnesses such as ME effectively denying that they are real physical illnesses. A ‘by-product’ of this approach was that Unum was able to resist claims for hundreds of millions of dollars

 

It was noted that attendees included key members of the “Wessely School”, namely psychiatrists Simon Wessely, Michael Sharpe, Peter White and Anthony David, as well as an active member of HealthWatch (Diana Brahams) and Dr John LoCascio, who had been head-hunted from UNUM Provident Insurance company to manage sickness and disability claims

 

http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/ME_-_Who_is_attacking_whom.htm).

Further reference was made to this event in the document by Hooper et al referred to above (Concerns about a Commercial Conflict of Interest) that was submitted to The Group on Scientific Research into ME at the House of Commons (the Gibson Inquiry). 

The ramifications of the Woodstock conference have been taken up by Jonathan Rutherford, who writes for Compass (a democratic pressure group launched in 2003 whose goal is to debate and develop ideas for a more equal world; it has over 2,000 members in the UK).

His article is called “New Labour, The Market State and the End of Welfare”.

Because the matter is so important for those with ME, renewed attention is drawn to Rutherford’s article published on 25th April 2007, from which the following quotations are taken:

“In November 2001 a conference assembled at Woodstock, near Oxford. Its subject was ‘Malingering and Illness Deception’. Amongst the 39 academics and experts was Malcolm Wicks, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Work, and Mansel Aylward, his Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). What linked many of the participants together, including Aylward, was their association with the giant US income protection company UnumProvident”.

“New Labour was looking to transform the welfare system”.

“In 1994 Peter Lilley, (Conservative) Secretary of State for Social Security, hired John LoCascio to advise on ‘claims management’. Lo Cascio was second vice president of Unum. He joined the ‘medical evaluation group’. Another key figure in the group was Mansel Aylward. They devised a stringent All Work Test. Approved doctors were trained in Unum’s approach to claims management”.

“(Unum)Provident introduced an aggressive system of ‘claims management’. Specific illnesses were targeted in order to discredit the legitimacy of claims.”

“In the UK, two Woodstock participants, Professor Simon Wessely and Professor Michael Sharpe, were working on reclassifying ME/CFS as a psychiatric disorder. A change in classification would save the industry millions of dollars.”

“(In) 1999 New Labour introduced the Welfare Reform Act. Mansel Aylward devised a new Personal Capability Assessment (PCA). The task of administering the PCA was contracted out
to SchlumbergerSema which was then taken over (along with its DWP assets) by the US (French) Corporation Atos Origin. Its computerised evaluation of claims resulted in significant numbers of rejected claims”.

“In July 2004 (UnumProvident) opened its £1.6 million UnumProvident Centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research at Cardiff University. The company appointed Mansel Ayward as Director following his retirement from the DWP. Professor Peter Halligan, who had forged the
partnership with UnumProvident, was ambitious: ‘Within the next five years, the work will
hopefully facilitate a significant re-orientation in current medical practise in the UK’.”

“The two men were joined by Gordon Waddell, another Woodstock participant. In 2005 the centre produced The Scientific and Conceptual Basis of Incapacity Benefits (TSO,2005) written by Waddell and Aylward and published by the DWP. The methodology used by Waddell and Aylward is the same one that informs the work of UnumProvident.”

“In a memorandum submitted to the House of Commons Select Committee on Work and pensions, UnumProvident define their method of working: ‘Our extended experience has shown us that the correct model to apply when helping people return to work is a bio-psychosocial one’.”

“Waddell and Aylward adopt the same argument. Disease is the only objective,medically
diagnosable pathology. Sickness is a temporary phenomenon. Illness is a behaviour”.

“(Incapacity benefit) trends are a social cultural phenomenon, rather than a health
problem.”

“The solution is not to cure the sick, but a ‘fundamental transformation in the way society deals with sickness and disabilities’ (page 123).”

“The goal and outcome of treatment is work”.

“No-one who is ill should have a straightforward right to Incapacity Benefit”.

“(In the US in 2004) Commissioner John Garamendi described UnumProvident as ‘an outlaw
company. It is a company that for years has operated in an illegal fashion’.”

“The (UK) 2006 Welfare Reform Bill sets a target of an 80 per cent employment rate. To achieve this, the numbers on Incapacity Benefit will have to be reduced by one million. In
2008, Incapacity Benefit will be replaced by an Employment and Support Allowance. ‘Customers’ who fail to participate in work-focused interviews or to engage in work related activity will lose benefits.”

“In the meantime, Unum Provident continues to exert its influence, aided by the
ideological work of the Woodstock group of academics”.

People with the “targeted” disorder ME may be too sick to take on board just what is happening and how disastrous the consequences may be for them.

By targeting those with ME, a dangerous precedent is being set for the refusal of benefits and is aimed at a vulnerable group of sick people who are least able to fight back.

That this is happening at all in the light of the mounting global biomedical evidence of the organic origins of ME shows a State-sanctioned contempt for and rejection of the sickest members of society by the very people who are trusted with a duty of care towards all its citizens.

Patients’ associations, clinicians and carers of ME patients must stand together without further delay in repelling such an extremist policy which has been in operation for over two decades and has already resulted in an unknown number of suicides through inability to fight the system that is meant to support them.

It is suggested that those who are able should bring this matter to the urgent attention of
their Member of Parliament, their local newspaper and television newsrooms.

After all, this planned withdrawal of support may begin with the ME population, but which group of disabled UK people who are deemed unworthy of State support on the basis of costly non-productivity will be targeted next?

_____________________________________________________________________________

I think what this piece, and many similar ones available online, demonstrates is that there is a web of connections between what would seem to be disparate personnel acting independently and impartially.

At the heart of this, though, there is one central idea that they all share.

This, for diverse reasons of varying advantage to their vested interests, is a motivation to transform the way that the public, and the medical world, thinks about health, illness and work.

It is not difficult to perceive the slant that this unified group wish to impress upon the consciousness of the masses:

“In November 2001 a conference assembled at Woodstock, near Oxford. Its subject was ‘Malingering and Illness Deception’. Amongst the 39 academics and experts was Malcolm Wicks, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Work, and Mansel Aylward, his Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). What linked many of the participants together, including Aylward, was their association with the giant US income protection company UnumProvident”.

Aylward himself has embraced the tenets of ‘Positive Psychology’ having spent many years researching it at both Cardiff and Harvard Universities.

There can be no confusion about the advantages that would accrue to Wessely’s profession should there be widespread mainstream medical acceptance of this new illness paradigm, based on the ‘bio-psycho-social’ model.

Clearly it strongly serves the interests of the psychiatric/psychology professions to ‘pry open’ what has previously been the province of biological medicine, and insert themselves therein.

Coming soon: The rise of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. 

Written by bigleyma

October 17, 2011 at 1:09 pm

18 thoughts on “DWP/UNUM/ATOS SCANDAL ~ Professor Simon Wessely: ”It is only human for doctors to view the public as foolish, uncomprehending, hysterical or malingering”

  1. jed goodright says:

    So here we have the definitive Paralympic Final Medal Table

    Number of Disabled People in Government 0
    Number of Disabled people in LOGOC 0
    Number of Disabled People in Sponsors 0
    Number of Disabled people in TV management 0
    Number of Disabled TV Presenters 1
    Number of Disabled Experts 0
    Number of Disabled Athletes Thousands

    It’s good to see the influence disabled people have at all levels of the Paralympics

    Somebody talk about legacy????

  2. Andrew Healey says:

    I invite these so called human beings to my home for a Sunday meal, once there myself and my friends will proceed to kick these bastards between their legs until we are all well and truly tired out and ready for a good nights sleep.Then our carers and family members can sit there and convince these pathetic amoebas that the excruciating pain they feel is all in their non existent minds. Just another clique of criminals thinking up ways of bamboozling our corrupt idiotic MP’s out of public money. Is there no one in parliament who is Decent, Honest, Trustworthy and Sane…

  3. DAVID A SHAW says:

    It is quite phenomenal that people such as those mentioned in this article are considered sane themselves. The reason i say this is that as going against all rational evidence from those who practice honest research into this subject,not only are they allowed to proliferate their vile and disgusting neo-fascist theories, but people believe them. And the reason for this ? Well its always good to hear a so called ‘expert’ give validation to a way of saving billions of pounds so that you and your chums can further line your pockets is it not ?

  4. jed goodright says:

    seen at Herr Wessleys’ tombstone:

    “I’m not dead I just froth a lot before resting”

  5. jed goodright says:

    Does this explain why politicians never answer the questions you put to them? They always answer the question they want to answer! I always could that denial and lying?

    USA has never ever provided useful accounts around social theory other than that of feminists writers through the 70s/80s. Robert Merton’s structuralism to JB Skinner’s behaviourism have provided nothing short of the ‘validity’ to every oppression known to man. These people and those who follow in their footsteps are appalling in their manifestation of being human. What are the links between BSP models and Scientology – they both are manifestations of fascism that the USA want to impose on the world.

  6. clarebelz says:

    I have never had a formal diagnosis of my illness, but suffer MS/ME/Fibromyalgia symptoms that are still deteriorating.

    Of the further 17 welfare reforms this government are planning there was one that caught my attention in the Guardian:

    ‘9. Requiring anyone on employment support allowance to improve their medical condition in return for benefits, for example, taking free physiotherapy if suffering from a bad back.’

    At the hands of a supposed ‘multi disciplinary’ team consisting of psychologists, physiotherapist, and pain specialists, at my local pain clinic who were trialing a new approach in the management of pain, I was bullied and coerced into agreeing to attend the clinic 2 full days per week; mornings spent exercising in the gym, and afternoons in ‘therapy’ or attending lectures on how pain is all in the mind.

    It was clear to me after a couple of sessions with their psychologist that it was the psychologists who were running the show there. At my first session with the psychologist, he told me that his gym sessions would cause me more pain, and they specifically wanted to bring on more of the spasms I suffer. I couldn’t believe that! I refused to attend 2 full days a week because I said that I could hardly manage just one hour. The psychologist asked if I would agree then just to have 8 sessions with him for an hour a week over 8 weeks that would help me manage my pain. I said that I would.

    In the first session with the psychologist her really messed me up bringing up painful things from my past which I had recovered from. He gave me some things to work on and I decided to fully engage with him. 10 minutes into the next session, he suddenly pushed my file away from him and said that he couldn’t help me unless I agreed to do the the 2 full days a week. I reiterated why that was impossible. He said that if I didn’t comply then he would cancel the rest of my therapy sessions, and I would not be allowed to attend the pain clinic again unless I agreed to the 2 day a week sessions. I declined.

    My greatest fear is that this government will use the excuse of needing people to improve their health to force people like me to attend these sessions, and consequently to sanction them when we find that impossible. After the first day I would be bed ridden, along with many others.

    I wrote about my experience more fully here:

    http://welfare-life-reformed.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/welfair-treatment.html#more

    1. Findlow says:

      Sensible doctors like the ones in the BMA who unequivocally condemned the WCA really need to get onto the sort of practise you describe here, Clarebelz. As you know all too well from bitter experience, what these people are trying to force you to do is appallingly medically negligent. If they would bother to read up on some of the thousands of peer-reviewed research papers on ME which prove beyond doubt it is a serious physical illness, they would know this. I share your concerns that the government will make ESA claims contingent on enduring the so-called clinics you have written about. Very, very worrying. I hope you have some support from your GP, or at least, he or she is open to being educated about the biology behind ME, and why what you’re being forced to do at the clinic is like trying to force-feed a Type 1 diabetic sugary doughnuts, saying their pancreatic malfunction is all in the mind!

  7. Aidan Walsh says:

    VERY SURPRISED HE HAS NOT BE CHARGED YET IN THE U.S.A. FEDERAL COURT SYSTEM SIMON ‘THE WEASLE’YET BUT HE WILL BE IT IS JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORED HE IS ARRESTED AND EXTRADITED BY THE F.B.I. HE IS UNDER INVESTIGATION NY THE DEPT. OF JUSTICE SO IS PETER WHITE…WE WILL READ ABOUT THIS IN NEWSPAPERS AND HAVE THE LAST LAUGHS…A LENGTHY PRISON SENTENCE IS FORTHCOMING FOR THE FRAUD ARTISTS PLUS PEOPLE ARE ALREADY FILING CIVIL SUITS AGAINST THEM AND INSURANCE INDUSTRIES AS WELL…IN THE END A CLASS ACTION SUIT WILL FOLLOW…

  8. Aidan Walsh says:

    ‘WALKING TALL PART 3’ STARRING AIDAN WALSH COMING VERY SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU BASED ON A TRUE STORY IN THE MAKING…GREAT NEWS ALSO TO BE ANNOUNCED IN EARLY OCTOBER OF THIS YEAR AND LAST I WILL BE SUIENG SIMON WESSLEY AND PETER WHITE AND THE ENTIRE INSURANCE INDUSTRY FOR £25 MILLION POUNDS AND MY SOLICITORS WILL DEMAND A FULL CRIMINAL PUBLIC ENQUIRY AND PROSECUTION OF THESE CRIMINALS…NOT TO WORRY THEY WILL LEAVE THINGS OPEN FOR CIVIL FULL CLASS ACTION SUITS TO BE FOLLOWED IN COURTS OF LAW…MY SOLICITORS HAVE ALREADY MET WITH JUDGES AT THE HAGUE AND ITS POSSIBLE THIS WILL BE FILED IN THE HIGH COURTS IN LONDON…WE ARE ALSO REQUESTING THAT ALL GOVERNMENTS HEALTH SYSTEMS BE BROUGHT TO LIGHT ON THE DENIAL OF FUNDINGS AND ABUSE TO HUMANS AS WELL…CRIMINAL CHARGES WILL ALSO BE BROUGHT FORWARD AGAINST GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS AS WELL AND CIVIL SUITS…THE U.S. DEPT OF JUSTICE TOGETHER WITH THE F.B.I. AND I BELIEVE INTERPOL IS ALSO INVOLVED AND ARE ALREADY INVESTIGATING THESE CRIMINAL WRONGDOINGS AND FRAUDS ALSO THE $10 MILLION DOLLARS THAT WENT MISSING AT THE N.I.H. FOR FUNDING CHARGES ALSO ARE BEING BROUGHT FORWARD…BEST WISHES GOD BLESS…JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THE TRUTH COMES OUT AND THESE CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS UNFOLD…BY THE WAY NUMEROUS FAMILY MEMBERS WITHIN THESE POLICE FORCES AND ALSO HIGH RANKING MEMBERS OG THE DEPT. OF JUSTICE ARE ALSO AFFECTED BY THESE ILLNESSES ANS SOME HAVE DIED AND YES NUMEROUS ONES HAVE ALSO BE ABUSED IR DENIED TO THEIR LOVED ONES AND LAST TOP OFFICIALS WITHIN THE PENTAGON ARE ALSO INVOLVED IN PASSING INFORMATION ON TH THESE POLICE AGENCIES AND DEPT OF JUSTICE…PEOPLE ARE FURIOUS AND TRUST ME NOW ‘HEADS ARE GOING TO SPIN AND THERE ARE PLENTY OF HANDCUFFS TO GO AROUND’ ‘WALKING TALL PART 3’ WILL COME TO A TRUE STORY SOON… BLESSES HANG IN THERE GREAT NEWS COMING IN OCTOBER PROVES A PHYSICAL CAUSE….NOT IN ONE’S HEAD LIKE THIS ‘ASS’ SAYS…GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU….

  9. Findlow says:

    Black Triangle – thank you so much for bringing all this information together here. Many people affected by these attitudes and policies still have absolutely no idea at all what a pack of hogwash they are based on. Yet as we know all to well, the effect is devastating. I long to see the day when this scandal is truly in the mainstream public domain, and that the British people get an apology from the government like the Norwegians have. I fear it will be a very long wait…..

  10. jed goodright says:

    ……… and so the abomination that has bee the atos parlympic games comes to an end. The inspiation for the closing ceremony coming straight from David Cameron’s innermost being ….. the spirit of what can be done versus the spirit of what can’t ….. not interested in watching anymore. This is like a revival meeting were the sinners are chastised and only the godly will get to heaven. Only those that can will see heaven dawn in their midst …… and coldplay still to come ….. who won the war?

    I am minded of the Jesssie Owen Olympics – here it is, writ large in TeamUK colours and I am ashamed … this is grotesque …. I SAID GROTESQUE ….. work will set you free ….. what has become of this country?

  11. Mary Schweitzer says:

    Thank you for posting this with the references. UNUM built up the concept of “medically unexplained symptoms” (MUS) with this crew of psychiatrists, and when they learned they could get away with denying claims on this basis, expanded it from M.E. and CFS to other so-called (MUS) conditions, including many conditions involving crippling pain.

    Not only were Wessely, Sharpe, White, and Chalder advising NHS, they were heavily involved in creating the US CDC’s program on CFS for the past 20 years, with no references to possible conflicts of interest. Most recently, Peter White, CMO of Scottish Provident and Swiss RE (a multinational re-insurance company) served on the three-member committee to create a five-year plan on CFS for CDC. It is no coincidence that the only link from CDC’s informational materials and website to an external clinic is to St. Bart’s, Peter White’s psychiatric clinic in Lomdon, to explain “Graded Exercise Therapy” – even while the co-author of critical research showing why forced exercise is so dangerous for patients with this disease, Chis Snell, was chair of CFSAC, HHS’s advisory committee on M.E. And CFS. (CDC is housed within HHS, as is NIH).

    NIH’s policies on “CFS” were heavily unfluenced by the late Stephen Straus, a great friend of the Wesselyite group, who insisted that there was no evidence of physical abnormalities and that therefore the disease was a form of somaticizing (tho he was a virologist). As a result, NIH has spent virtually nothing on a disease that affects one million adult Americans – only 15% of whom have any diagnosis.

    I know patients who have been sick over 30 years; they were professionals, now they are impoverished and unable to get any care. I know adults in their 40s who became sick in their teens – they never went to college, had a career, got married, had children, and are facing poverty and unknown medical complications as they age.

    There has long been evidence that this disease is contagious at some point in it’s course, that it can cut short the lives of patients – no one knows about the worst, about heart attacks at a young age, feeding tubes, rare lymphomas, and patients dying simply because too may organs are under attack. How can CDC and NHS ignore this? They have allowed a vicious disease to spread unabated, apparently to save a few short-run bucks.

    This is an international disgrace, and the degree of coordination is chilling.

    Thank you again for bringing it to people’s attention.

  12. pete says:

    Who remembers George Bush saying – you’re either with us or against us? So has ended the biggest propaganda exercise in peacetime Britain – we are now reclassified as terrorists or fakers or scroungers – authenticated by the elites because it is they who do the reclassifying of the people.

    The paralympic games has been a wonderfully successful exercise in reclassifying people. Coe ends his speech last night decalring disability will no longer be the same.

    My friends we now enter a new era of persecution – because we have seen on tv that disabled people can do things. Cameron reinforced the notion of it not being about what we can’t do but what we can – in interview on channel4 he even turned the death of his own child into a propaganda piece. The man is what used to be called clinically insane but today is called prime minister

    We may as well all go find somewhere to die.

  13. polly says:

    Wessely has so much to answer for , I really hope I live to see the day he is hauled before the courts . hes wrecked lives , left a trail of devastation and meanwhile hes laughing all the way to the bank living a more than adeqaute lifestyle off the backs of other peoples misery , but of course he will claim he was merely trying to help people . Yet in reality he mocks and belittles seriously ill people , influences politics , medical treatment , guidelines and insurance companies . He also has some controll over what appears in the press via the science media centre infact our simon has got his hands well and truly stuck in more than enough pies . Hes played a huge part in denying gulf war syndrome , made out the folks who were poisoned by aluminium at camleford were hysterical infact he would turn every single bloody illness going into some kind of psychological disorder given half a chance . He denies scientific findings from biomedical research yet his theories which are basically his ideas are seen as gospel , but then biomedical research findings cost money to treat his ludicrous theories save money just about says it all really .

  14. Humanity2012 says:

    Utterly Utterly Out of Touch the Drivel from Wessely is

    The Arrogance shown makes me Very Angry and Disgusted

    We Need Better than this Present Cuckooland State of Affairs

  15. Jane says:

    This story is what is wrong with our society in a nutshell. People with power work out ways to make/take money from the masses, with a total disregard to the human misery and economic consequences of thousands of individuals who hence suffer unnecessarily from what should be treatable illnesses.

    They work in mysterious ways, their pockets to enrich, while the world goes to hell in a handcart.

  16. Peter Nicholls says:

    Read as much as I could of that book on ‘look inside me’. and wow. positive thought, bio-psychological or what ever it is called has replaced witch-doctory, quackery, superstition, star gazing!!!!!!!

    It’s sick.

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