Have just been perusing
this article by Prof. Simon Wessely. It talks about the gap between psychiatry and neurology; insinuating that, more often than not, the two are inextricably linked. He uses the field of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome research for this - and I think he puts the metaphor to justice.
The more controversial side of the article though, is that a minority of those with CFS have been hampering research, and even threatening the researchers themselves. Simon Wessely himself has been at the forefront of a heck of a lot of abuse and threats. He gives the anecdote: "somebody said that my wife is a ‘rat who should be thrown into a cage with infected mice'". Lovely. I also spent some time a while back trying to find the sources for the oft-used quotes by some CFS sites. It's a massive circular trail. Each quote links to another CFS site, which then links to another. These are the often used pieces of 'evidence' to exhibit how awful Wessely is.
There does seem to be a lot of confusion and aggression to the term 'psychological'. Psychological does not equate to being 'made up' or 'malingering'. Would you be angry (besides the obvious reasons) for being classed as having a neurological disorder by a Doctor? If not, then why is having a psychological disorder - a manifestation of the brain - such a bad thing, precisely? [paraphrasing Wessely, here.]
Even the above argument seems a little perplexing, regardless. I don't think anyone is insinuating that CFS is purely psychological. Wessely says in the article that "The evidence is that, like most illnesses, CFS is a mixture of the physical and the psychological."
CFS and its research is very emotive. I know. People really want to get better. But spiting the people who are trying to find ways to help us seems incredibly short-sighted. Sure, you can disagree with Simon Wessely's arguments, but threats and attempts to silence researchers like him just seems ridiculous. Science works by tearing apart one another's hypotheses and backing up your arguments with evidence. Science does not work by clamorously screaming conjecture and attempting to silence anyone who doesn't agree with your world-view.
