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I think we can see where dysfunctional cognitions and maladaptive behaviour might have come from.

Who knows who Simon Wessely is, but perhaps we should look at those who guided and influenced him in his formative years. This appeared at the bottom of his 1987 Hysteria paper. I wish to thank Professor M. Shepherd, Professor G. F. M. Russell and Dr R. Dolan for their help and advice They...

The original paper under discussion sent me back to look at McEvedy's papers on the schools outbreaks. It occurred to me that one might learn something not only from the rate of spread, but also from the rate of recovery. Both the Blackburn and RFH conditions were postulated on the ground that...

Can that date of 1990 for the Oslo /Sweden polio outbreak be correct.? Does it mean 1890?

Isn't this like the unfortunate trans Atlantic liner metaphor. A compass, on its own, is only useful if you already know your intended direction of travel. Now, if they had a map as well they might find out where they were.

That seems an unwise piece of advice if they are hoping to cure the patient. Other family members get old. They may even come to require care. People remember.

It would help if they fixed those "imaginary"s. Presumably "imagery" is intended. But it is hard to be certain. Just an observation - not a criticism. We have to be cautious around "imaginary".

She was, or may still be, a psychiatrist who played a prominent part in the CIBA conference andwho held strange views on somatisation. I did not think this too important until seeing in Oslers WEb that she was involved in CDC committees that scuppered various research plans. See Somatisation...

Does that really apply if the only reason for the original illness was suggestibility leading to a false belief in illness.? Where does that leave the patient when the illness continues? We have seen that SW carried forward from mass hysteria into sporadic ME the language of abnormal illness...

Seeing the source of the paper I could not get past the memory of Professor Jan van Strabismus whom God preserve of Utrecht. I cannot imagine why.

Yes, I agree with some of the difficulties surrounding encephalitis, but I don't understand the need to add the additional layer of suggestibility, for which there is no more evidence than there is for encephalitis, when the infectious epidemic in the neighbourhood is a possible explanation of...

If suggestibility was the cause of the Royal Free "epidemic" what is proposed as the cause of the more sporadic outbreak in North West London which started before the Royal Free outbreak and finished after it (Compston 1978). What also was the cause of the Dalston outbreak occurring slightly...

There is certainly evidence from 1989 which could be considered a basis for reasonable inferences to be drawn. What standard of proof do you require? It would be a chore to dig it all out again. It would only be necessary to show the intent behind the original definition. Desire to retain as...

Did not Abbey, one of the sources of our woes, hail from Toronto General Hospital. So this should come as no surprise.

There has always been some difficulty in understanding what SW et al mean by the term "maladaptive behaviour" which, along with the dysfunctional cognitions, forms part of our illness....apparently. This section from the Hysteria paper gives a clue as to its usage. This concept is an attempt to...

It is interesting to note SW's explanation of the Royal Free as described in that paper The common feature of the stressors underlying outbreaks of mass motor hysteria is an inability on the part of the subjects either to comprehend the true nature of the threat facing them or to avoid it. On...

Quick! Someone! Get some Guidelines written for "Long-Covid".

The difficulty which this argument faces is that a number of cases were excluded from the paper on the basis that they were thought to be suffering "hysteria". This suggests that those cases and perhaps all the cases were properly assessed by a psychiatrist, better qualified than McEvedy and at...

I have discovered where Wessely made use of the concept of Abnormal Illness Behaviour, which the 1988 indicated was the replacement for Hysteria Mass hysteria will be regarded as a phenomenon with certain characteristics. First, it is an outbreak of abnormal illness behaviour that cannot be...

They even have there own, new, special therapy CAT. Cognitive Analytic Therapy. No expense spared. Although sparing expense was probably the object of the exercise.