Michael Sharpe skewered by @JohntheJack on Twitter

It's more like gossiping over Kim Kardashian's social media than real analysis. [edit: And I don't mean that as a criticism]

Sharpe has shown he is unwilling or unable to engage in any substantive discussions about PACE, but he's still a figure who has had a great deal of influence over the lives of people here, and who continues to smear those making criticisms of PACE, so his funny ways are going to be of interest.

 

These tweets demonstrate that he is either a complete hypocrite, or more likely, that his lack of self-awareness is bordering on delusional. Considering the harm he has caused, it is worth recording them. They are also free entertainment, and since he has done nothing else for us, we might as well avail ourselves of the free laughs that he provides. Not that any of this is really very funny.

I agree that they don't need much analysis.

 

That last quote appears to show muddled thinking by Einstein, whoever thought it worthy of inscribing in stone, and Sharpe.

 

I have been trying to work out what he meant (Einstein). Presumably he meant that you must share all your results. Coming from Sharpe that is serious irony.

 

I think he has heard about the Hohfeldian analysis of rights and duties but failed to understand the concept of jural correlatives. People have the idea that rights imply duties, without understanding the nature of the duty and where it lies.

 

Mm. I don't think this usage of right and duty has to do with legal constructs. I think it is an older ethical idea, is it not? Those who have power or resources have an ethical obligation to use them well. That turns up in rules of accountability within organisations but I don't think it is a legal issue. I had never heard of Hohfeld but was very familiar with the idea of a right/duty link.

 

Is there any right to search for truth, or is that contingent upon one's whereabouts, and the time in which one lives? It may be that he just meant "The search for truth implies a duty etc." and the words "The right to" are otiose

 

I read it as 'say what you really think, don't dissemble'. Wessely used to be good at this ("...ME is a belief..."). As far as I know Sharpe has always employed euphemism and equivocation with great vim so I think what he's doing is putting a reminder to himself to do better on his own twitter account.

 

They don't. It's just a sort of black humour to see his brass necked self-denial, as he tries to project his own failures onto others.

 

I don't think it is. It's about not using partial truths to very convincingly imply falsehoods. Something MS and his fellow BPS colleagues have more or less turned into a psychological science all of its own; the technique is as old as the hills of course, but these folks look to be taking it to a new level.

 

Well. I've been through two decades of him and his ilk using their position and education to make wild assumptions about me, based on how I behave when my life has fallen apart because I'm sick. My motivation has been thoroughly questioned.

I think it understandable that we should weigh his words against his actions. He's a psychiatrist. He knows each tweet will reveal something about him.

Us guessing and attributing motives and meanings isn't very scientific, but it is as scientific as their analysis of us.

Except of course our words don't carry the same weight - no risk of loss of access to healthcare, benefits, etc.

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1044318531314216965

 

Has he actually read it?

 

He's going to get round to reading it after he reads the PACE trial.

 

I suspect if Richard Feynman were still around, MS might be unwise to take his name in vain.

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1044468114312888325

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1044321236522860544


https://twitter.com/user/status/1010419692375367680

 

One wonders what Sharpe is thinking now.

This is from a 2011 thread on PR

Illustrations of threats Issued by Simon Wessely

https://forums.phoenixrising.me/ind...ons-of-threats-issued-by-simon-wessely.11631/


"In October 2003, an article in The Scotsman (Doctors Notes: ME sufferers have found an enemy in Wessely so they need friends: The Scotsman, 6th October 2003) by Dr Margaret Cook, former wife of the late Robin Cook MP, accurately portrayed the significance of Wesselys role in the misperception of ME/CFS."

"You can tell from every sentence of his letter that he is used to dictating principles and having everyone in his orbit humbly accept his gospel. If I needed persuading that the ME community merited my support, this letter and its author would convince me. When you have enemies like him, you need a powerful lot of friends."

--------
(c) 2003 The Scotsman