Towards a critical psychology of chronic fatigue syndrome: Biopsychosocial narratives and UK welfare reform, 2022, Hunt

I have a strong sense of deja vu reading this article. Presumably there was a pre publication version or an earlier text available. I assume it was discussed here, but have not found the relevant thread yet (unfortunately I struggling with finding things like this). It is useful having published articles dealing with the history of the hijacking of ME as CFS in the UK, including what Doctors with ME might refer to as ‘regulatory capture’.

Here is the final paragraph:

Looking forward

This article has demonstrated how a critical psychology approach to ‘chronic fatigue
syndrome’ and ME/CFS reveals key tenets of critical theory: how psychological concepts
can oppress as well as empower, how power and knowledge are bound up in discourse,
how such discourse constructs as well as reflects the social imaginary and how complicity
reinforces unjust practices. Points raised here are of increasing importance given the
emergence of long Covid, whereby certain sub-groups lack objective biomarkers and
may thus be more susceptible to undue psychologisation and politicisation. In fact,
actors involved in the politicisation and psychologisation of ME/CFS are also involved
in the clinical positioning of long Covid (Willis & Chalder, 2021). The possibility of a
tidal wave of post-viral disability has been noted, raising questions of how society will
accommodate this in the long-term, and it has been suggested that the clinical and
societal positioning of long Covid may be influenced by political and economic agendas.
Mainstream acceptance of a critical approach to ‘contested’ (politicised, stigmatised)
conditions is long overdue.
Click to expand...

I don’t recall the version I previously read referring to Long Covid, but that may relate to my memory issues.
 
I presume that the srticle was severely constrained by some necessary word-count. It has a fairly arbitrary starting point. The most significant matter always seemed to be Peter Lilley's sudden and bizarre decision to bring John LoCascio from UNUM to the DWP. He needs to be qustioned about that before he fades away completely. Aylward did not seem unduly hostile before that event.

The Aylward/Waddell model was not new. There was a parallel movement in the US from which Waddell appeared to borrow. If he was unaware of that, he should not have been.
 
Peter Trewhitt said:
I have a strong sense of deja vu reading this article.
Click to expand...

Jo Hunt was lead author on this recent paper discussed on this thread:
Long Covid at the crossroads: Comparisons and lessons from the treatment of patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS)
Joanne Hunt, Charlotte Blease, Keith J Geraghty First Published March 27, 2022

that included a section covering the same issues headed 'Socio-political dimensions of illness' covering some of the same material.
 
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