Covid-19 - Psychological research and treatment

Merged thread


CFS, hypochondriasis, and Covid-19 (Kuwaiti society survey)

I wasn't really sure what the survey found. Maybe somebody can locate the paper or report.

Dr. Marc-Alexander Fluks
Source: Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)
Date: April 15, 2020
URL:
https://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2886062&Language=en


Coronavirus poses multiple hazards to Kuwaiti society - survey

 

OK I actually laughed out loud at this one. It's basically extending the worst of Wessely's tropes and taking them to their most extreme absurd conclusions, in a second language, written by someone who just barely learned to write. The substance is basically the exact same, though, the only difference is the style. It pretty much says the same stuff as the latest beauty from the Oxford pamphlet, just more awkwardly.

Which really shows how the entire ME-BPS model is purely rhetorical, as without flowery rhetoric and the veneer of falsely technical arguments it just looks ridiculous. Or basically what it would look like if a high school student made a last minute book report on those same ideas. Still, the substance is basically the exact same thing in the pamphlet, because of course they derive from the same beliefs.

Production value, perception, is basically all the BPS model is. Basically The Producers meet The Aristocrats joke. Except it's not a joke and the consequences are real.

The gist of it:

I have no idea what behavioral tiredness is. I doubt whoever wrote that does either.

 

They seem to define hypochondriasis as the preoccupation to develop severe illness. That doesn't seem like a bad thing in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.

 

tl;dr: this is a familiar danger sign.


the hazard to society message is not thickly veiled.

i only pick this article because it is there. i
could have picked nearly anything. thousands of articles.


it is normal to laugh at moronicity, but i think it is also
needed to see it as an attack on a population. whether intended as such or not.

what the public sees is what we saw in the op.

i don't think many with a passing familiarity with the
lead up to, for example, massacres
and lynchings, will find the veil convincing.


the message that gets
taken by many readers is
that certain disease populations are THEMSELVES burdens to
society, invalid, or less than completely normal or human.

it might SAY negative attudes, or illness beliefs, or
biogenetic immunobabblelific whatever, but that only allows for slipperiness.


in practice, to say that a population is a burden/hazard to society, invalid, or
less than completely human is to say that that population is
less deserving of fundamental
rights as citizens and as humans.


it could be in times of crisis, that if you are deemed to
have a negative attitude, you "don't deserve" treatment for
covid or anything else. i do not view this as implausible.

it could be gelled into policy quickly.

with m.e. or any politically similar disease on your record,
will you be triaged without bias? when the system is
overwhelmed?

social darwinism -like and eugenics-like sentiments are growing. you'vemaybe seen them.


i don't think the veil needs much attention. we know the veil is often whatever works.

it does not have to make sense. analyzing nonsense isn't needed as much as noticing the message.

in this case, there is a confusing mix of a construct called
negative attitudes, a false portrayal -- a smear agains the
population -- and a description of a construct that is more
useful to authority than humans.


the message allows for
medical care to be yanked from anybody who needs it.


the rhetorical appeals are /ethos/ with fear of an internal
ougroup, and /pathos/. you are not deserving, and society
is threatened, or beset, by you plural. you are a
member of an internal outgroup.

think back to everything said about m.e. and similarly-mistreated diseases in the press that
smeared. since 1980s and earlier to the early part of
the 1900s. in fact, earlier. the same themes crop up again and again.


regardless of overall intent -- it is not necessary to posit
conspiracy -- the wider community of m.e. and
similarly mistreated diseases might be wise to consider an
idea, sooner instead of later.

the idea is as follows:

1) this /type of/ thing can be seen as, in
effect, attacks. smears. not merely misguided
research.
2) they constitute, /ipso facto/, part of a
widespread and systematic attack on a civilian
population [viz. those who are sick with certain
diseases]. there are details here.
3) the fact that this type of attack is even possible
constitutes a human rights crisis, over and above
existing crises of not being taken seriously, no
services, potemkin research, little real research, etc.
4) the attack manifests a distinct sociopolitical
phenomenon, roughly analogous to
racism except against those who are sick.


overall intent is not needed to accept this idea.
all that is needed is a drumbeat of
attacks on populations.


i hope those who can, will take a look at my two recent
blog posts on the kafka pandemic.

the most recent post took me perhaps about 16 years to
write. i hope some of you will take a few minutes .
the post before it sets historical bg.


i welcome comments at any level of detail in my blog
comments on my blog.

however, for this forum, i hope only that you will find the idea above worth
thinking about.
i just want to present it for your consideration.

more urgently i hope that you perceive that this type of
thing is a danger sign.

that it is not only an eddy of moronicity in a
current of arrant destruction, but PART OF something big and
latent that can get even worse suddenly in a crisis.


1) https://thekafkapandemic.blogspot.com/2020/02/crimes-against-humanity_3.html
2) https://thekafkapandemic.blogspot.com/2020/01/eugenics.html

 

Merged thread

Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic: a call for action for mental health science

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30168-1/fulltext

Simon's been busy (Couldn't see a thread for this.)

@dave30th

 

"An immediate priority is collecting high-quality data on the mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic across the whole population and vulnerable groups, and on brain function, cognition, and mental health of patients with COVID-19."

 

I would have thought the immediate priority was to get rid of Covid19 so that there is no need to do any more research on it.

 

Say what you like about Wessely, he is exceptionally good at lobbying for taxpayer funds.

 

I can't imagine a worst possible group of people for this task if it involves Wessely. The only response to this frankly is: haven't these people suffered enough? Apparently not. This weird framing of depression syndromes really makes it clear that nothing good will come of this. It's not even a thing and now it will be a thing that was always a thing, somehow.

I feel deep sadness for all the harm this will cause, knowing it could have been avoided entirely. All the money wasted on this, not because it's not needed but because it will be badly bungled to promote the BPS ideology, could do so much good.

At least it will expose the charlatanism but the harm done until that happens will be impossible to roll back. Hopefully economics will make it irrelevant sooner rather than later, what a waste of resources in a massive crisis. There is hardly any group of people for which society would be better off simply paying to stay home.

 

Wow, they've really got their priorities right! Yes, that seems like an excellent and productive way to spend taxpayers money...

 

I just had to chuckle at this!

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1252324143531524098


lawdy

 

Social Connection Keeps Us Safe

https://www.annualreviews.org/shot-of-science/story/social-connection-keeps-us-safe

is there any scientific evidence for any of this?

 

That's never bothered BPS folks before. It's a convenient narrative, though, reducing complexity to very simple aphorisms, and in the end, isn't that what medicine is all about? It's not, obviously, but ideology is oblivious to reality and BPSers never look at the outcomes so it's always right.

And anyway there's always ME patients to use as props. Almost all are socially isolated, as a consequence, and almost all have abnormal immune systems. The direction of causality is just an inconvenient detail, after all if you zoom in, arrows are just a straight line so does causality really matter when you've already decided that science doesn't?

I can't imagine a worst test for the BPS ideology than a deadly pandemic. But they are going all in on this because belief and escalation of commitment compel. An ideology that exists mainly as a cost-savings program that actually ends up costing far more. One that lacks any accountability and relies on magical thinking. During a deadly pandemic. Marvelous new Lysenkoism, a modern modest proposal.

 

Special Issue: Immunopsychiatry of COVID-19 pandemic
Special Issue: Immunopsychiatry of COVID-19 pandemic
Guest Editors: Carmine Pariante and Kuna-Pin Su

https://www.journals.elsevier.com/b...l-issue-immunopsychiatry-of-covid-19-pandemic

eta: is Carmine Pariante still on the CMRC?
https://www.s4me.info/posts/139625

 

Cue a rush of papers from the usual suspects.

 

Time to roll out the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. It always worked in the past.

 

Any bets on whether there'll be any discussion of people living in poverty, of the detrimental effects of dealing with a brutal benefits system.....you know, some of the issues where their input could actually be of some use.