Finland: Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation: Symposium September 2024

Briefly in the past I become aware of a 1995 symposium sponsored by the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation in which Simon Wessely spoke "Chronic fatigue syndrome: a 20th century illness? (pp. 17-34).

I Googled it today and came across a recent symposium in Sept 2024:

Psychosomatic medicine revisited.
Details here: Psychosomatic medicine revisited -… | Gyllenbergs Stiftelse and Villa

Speakers include some well known:
Peter Fonagy
Richard J. Davidson
Peter Henningsen
Simon Wessely
Mats Lekander
Thomas Chelimsky
Luana Colloca
Pekka Louhiala
Helena Liira
Jon Stone
Markku Sainio
Eija Kalso
Mark Edwards
Qasim Aziz
Gisela Chelimsky
Markku Partinen
Judith Rosmalen
Gerd Kvale

"The Foundation supports medical research work by providing grants for research in the fields of psychosomatic medicine and blood diseases. It also supports anthroposophical medical research as signified by Rudolf Steiner, augmenting the existing knowledge about people’s mental, spiritual, and physical structure and its influence on the human being as a whole. Grants are also given for professional training and special projects in this field, as well as for the publishing of related literature."

It didn't appear in my search on the forum and I was wondering if there was awareness of their work and influence?

@dave30th

 

Papers from the XIIth symposium (28-29 September 1995) were published in Vol 23, supplement 3 of the Scandinavian Journal of Work and Health in 1997. List:



And this is how the Foundation was described in the preface:

 

Selected items from the program.

Theme 2, Mechanisms

Keynote lecture: The Media and the Medical Profession – an unholy alliance dedicated to producing somatic symptoms, Professor Simon Wessely

Stress, Fatigue, and Illness Behaviour, Professor Mats Lekander​

Theme 3, Clinical syndromes

Functional Neurological Disorders - Past, Present and Future, Professor Jon Stone

How can challenges be turned into opportunities? The unique legacy of getting it right for people with functional symptoms, Professor Mark J Edwards

The neurobiology of stress mediated gastrointestinal dysfunction in disorders of gut brain interaction, Professor Qasim Aziz

The Non-pharmacological Management of Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction (DGBI), Professor Gisela Chelimsky

Long COVID and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Professor Markku Partinen​

Theme 4, Clinical care and management of functional disorders

Frida’s pain: a biopsychosocial perspective, Professor Judith Rosmalen​

Panel discussion with short introductions:

Implementations into Practice

-Somatic Symptoms and Syndromes in Healthcare Systems

-Somatic Symptoms and Syndromes and Health Insurance

-What’s next?

Chair: Professor Markku Partinen

Participants: Professor Helena Liira, Associate professor Lena Thorn, Professor Jon Stone, Professor Simon Wessely

 

I just noticed that this foundation provides:

"Anthroposophical" "medicine" was Rudolf Steiner's bizarre, esoteric, alchemical, quasi-occult gibberish that he hallucinated into existence in the 1920s.

Rather fitting that the psychosomatic peddlers should be in such company.