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Not LW, although he got so cynical about philosophy that it is hard to know if he believed anything at the end. Cartesian Dualism is of course itself a category error, because, as understood by the people who own the term, it bears little relation to the thinking of Rene Descartes. I would...

Cartesian dualism, innit.

I think I can get some idea of what you are experiencing, having had intangible experiences of this sort myself, if not quite this. I don't think there is a logical inconsistency. Sensations that seem to be of a certain type, devoid of any specifics to make them a case that type are not that...

I am more confident than I was. The case numbers are still much the same and deaths are falling slightly. Countries that had a recent wave earlier than us are seeing numbers drop right off. I think the current wave will be the last and will Peter out some time at the end of the year.

I doubt anybody does much. The prefrontal region is where higher thoughts and thoughts about self tend to be. So reduced activity in prefrontal region might indicate not thinking such complicated thoughts about how the pain was for oneself. Or it might indicate less in the way of thought about...

I am struggling to see how they hope to publish a paper on two patients?

Silly me, someone is marketing CBT of course, but why would Cochrane employ a marketing executive who believes in 'pushing' treatments? You can't make it up.

What on earth is that picture about? Is somebody selling degrees in business studies at Bridlington Virtual University?

Presumably a thesis? Except that the first author is about 60 and has a doctorate

There seems to me to be something badly wrong with this whole idea. What you want to do to optimise a guideline is to make sure you get information from all groups of people who may have important information about what the reliable evidence really is on what matters to patients and what can...

I suspect that they have not considered how much attempting to measure how much measuring things in trials affects measurements is likely to affect the measurements of how much measuring things affects measurements. They might need to set up a-committee to measure this.

That sounds like quasi-physiological theorising to me. I am not sure what a positive effect on the autonomic nervous system would be. I don't want to sound picky all the time but it would be good to sweep the cupboard clean when it comes to such theorising and move on to a genuinely...

And of course those who build their persona and social identity out of accumulating contrarian beliefs are likely to expect everyone else to collect beliefs. The difference from their own case being that those beliefs will be wrong - since the holders do not belong to the enlightened elite.

As others have indicated there are many ways in which far left and far right converge - Orwell is full of it - but I think this is something unrelated. This is simply a group of people who have found solace in the idea that they belong to an elite of minds who are one step cleverer than...

I am afraid that I agree. Using Maes and Twisk as a comparator is unwise. Maes produces as much nonsense as BPS people. The suggestion that what is needed is more training of psychologists is wrong. If we do not know what is wrong with people and we have no evidence that psychological...

I think it may be quite useful for this sort of disinformation to come out in a national newspaper just now. The people at NICE involved with the new guideline are likely to redouble their commitment to sticking to their guns. Having spent four years working with Adam, Sally, Saran, and...

A story wearing rather thin.

EDS is defined as a cluster of monogenic disorders where connective tissues are abnormal because of a defect in a single collagen or related gene. In that respect it is akin to haemophilia or Marfan's or sickle cell disease or a wide range of other gene defects. EDS III was posited as a...

NO I think they are just looking at joint hypermobility per se. The problem is that some fringe physicians are now conflating that with what used to be called EDS III and is now called hEDS, which as far as I can see isn't really a form of EDS anyway. There is very little evidence for monogenic...

It is more subtle in that you want to make sure that the ascertainment of a diagnosis of ME/CFS and of JH is not coloured by beliefs about JH and ME. There are some population studies in children that tend to suggest that JH isn't associated with anything much to do with ME. There is the ME...