BPS proponents don't respond well to criticism

Obermann

Obermann

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Proponents of a biopsychosocial view of ME/CFS don’t respond well to criticism. Last autumn, Dr. Jörgen Malmquist published a book on ME/CFS in Swedish. It was available at the website bokus.com. I wrote a review; and, as it is a bad book that is full of misconceptions, the review was negative.

Malmquist wrote an angry e-mail, and I asked him not to mail again. He mailed again, and after a long argumentative text he finally asked me to withdraw the negative review. Which, of course, I didn’t.

Today I received another e-mail. The English translation is:

“In the message [e-mail] I sent to you on January 11 2021, I said that I will use parts of the text [review] in other contexts, but use third person [when your name is mentioned].

Because of your swinish, language falsifying text (“review”) at Bokus, I don’t owe you this courtesy. I can, therefore, in blogs etcetera write ‘as I in January 2021 pointed out to Sten Helmfrid’ or use other formulations when your name is mentioned.”

Sigh! He is not a gentleman.
 
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Obermann said:
Proponents of a biopsychosocial view of ME/CFS don’t respond well to criticism. Last autumn, Dr. Jörgen Malmquist published a book on ME/CFS in Swedish. It was available at the website bokus.com. I wrote a review; and, as it is a bad book that is full of misconceptions, the review was negative.

Malmquist wrote an angry e-mail, and I asked him not to mail again. He mailed again, and after a long argumentative text he finally asked me to withdraw the negative review. Which, of course, I didn’t.

Today I received another e-mail. The English translation is:

“In the message [e-mail] I sent to you on January 11 2021, I said that I will use parts of the text [review] in other contexts, but use third person [when your name is mentioned].

Because of your swinish, language falsifying text (“review”) at Bokus, I don’t owe you this courtesy. I can, therefore, in blogs etcetera write ‘as I in January 2021 pointed out to Sten Helmfrid’ or use other formulations when your name is mentioned.”

Sigh! He is not a gentleman.
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Well he's clearly threatening you (and harassing you). Can you let his publisher know about his behaviour? Some authors have morality clauses which mean they can get dropped like a hot potato if they do anything dodgy or likely to bring the publisher into disrepute.

Of course, if he wants to name and shame you, you could do the same and tweet his emails (tagging his employers, etc).
 
It does seem to be a feature of a number of BPS advocates, from Prof Crawley accusing people including Dr Tuller (@dave30th) of libel but never providing evidence [for] such slanders, from the standard accusation that any patient objections are the [result] of anti science vitriol, the lack of evidence for the significant number of BPS advocates claims of death threats, the apparent inability of a number of researchers to actually listen and respond to the substance of reasonable critiques of their work and so [on]

It would be interesting to know the direction of causality in this association, is it this theoretical approach that attracts people with these personality issues or does it help create these problems.

There is evidence of specific training through the Science Media Centre to equip these researchers in the use of ad hominem attacks on those that do criticise their works, to turn the media debate around personal attacks to avoid discussion of the issues.

[corrected typos]
 
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Sadly this has become practice among some other online stores as well. I heard some Amazon sellers contact people who make bad reviews. They even go as far as to bribe them to get the review removed. Would be interesting to hear how much Malmquist is ready to pay. :)

Anyway, what this clearly shows is that those reviews matter and affect the sales, which is a good thing.
 
"BPS proponents dont respond well to criticism"

And the prize for the biggest understatement in a thread title goes to....:trophy@:D

I'm with @Kittyi'm sure people would find it hilarious. Can you imagine a respected author doing that? Lee Childs perhaps, or Alexander McCall Smith? LOL

It sounds like it's kept him up nights if he's sent several emails. He should try being awake all night with symptoms of ME that might change his perspective a bit
 
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Henrik Vogt was recently interviewed on a podcast by a known sceptic in Norway, and it lasted for about two hours. The sceptic has now been called an ME activist by HV's supporters for asking critical questions.

I haven't listened to the interview episode myself as I am not a fan of how Vogt behaves in such settings. Today the sceptic released a new podcasts with some thoughts on how the interview went, and apparently there was some appeal to authority (Vogt being a GP, the sceptic not so), Vogt admitting he believes everyone with ME have the same problem (stress/psychological), and no interest to discuss the (quality of) the science or validity of stories from Recovery. I'm not surprised ;) I think @benji have listened to the interview.
 
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Obermann said:
Dr. Jörgen Malmquist published a book on ME/CFS in Swedish. [...] I wrote a review; and, as it is a bad book that is full of misconceptions, the review was negative.

Malmquist wrote an angry e-mail, and I asked him not to mail again. He mailed again, and after a long argumentative text he finally asked me to withdraw the negative review. Which, of course, I didn’t.
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rvallee said:
Really sounds like more people should be writing a review of this book.
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I'm not sure they would appreciate my review written in English. Can anyone please help me - what is the Swedish translation for "Streisand"?
 
Can't escape the BPS brigade, they've nailed fibromyalgia.

Read an interview with the trauma psychiatrist Bessell van de Kolk (after trauma we are left with a different nervous system and we are trying to control our inner turmoil. He writes: “These attempts to maintain control over unbearable physiological reactions can result in a whole range of physical symptoms, including fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and other autoimmune diseases”(p.53).)

Wow, back to minus square one to infinite.

And then this on further browse: https://thamesvalleypartnership.org.../2021/05/WHAT-HAPPENED-TO-YOU-D-Ravindran.pdf

I guess I don't have fibromyalgia because I didn't suffer childhood or domestic trauma (I got out of that relationship after the first incident).

I am beginning to give up on most of the medical profession. It may save my sanity (from a disabled nurse).
 
Obermann said:
Proponents of a biopsychosocial view of ME/CFS don’t respond well to criticism. Last autumn, Dr. Jörgen Malmquist published a book on ME/CFS in Swedish. It was available at the website bokus.com. I wrote a review; and, as it is a bad book that is full of misconceptions, the review was negative.
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I cannot see such a review at bokus.com, for Trött hela livet : Sjukdomen ME, it seems the review has been taken down?
 
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