Who is Simon Wessely?

Ah, to be the King
and get everyone to sing
the praises of his glory
in an alternative type story

Again we are the 'other'
we ungrateful souls, who bother
his royalty with unyielding truths
that refuse to heal or to soothe

a conscience pricked
but no remorse
he'll lash back
and stay the course

For he's the King
no doubt of that
we must concede
and be his mat

 

Is the Foreign Legion still going?

 

Yes, he does seem a bit of a fantasist doesn't he.

 

Yes. The way he belittles not just his medical colleagues, but implicitly their whole professions, is as revolting as the way he belittles patients. So blatantly ultra arrogant. How does he get away with it so publicly?

 

http://www.simonwessely.com/index.php/cfs-personal-story/

http://www.simonwessely.com/index.php/misunderstandings-misperceptions/

 

Interesting how wrong you can be.

"He discovered (WRONG) that by combining cognitive behavioural therapy and light exercise (WRONG) a third of patients make a full recovery (WRONG again)."

 

So......two wrongs don't make a right.....but three wrongs probably make a Knight.

 

It reminds me of a thought that passed through my mind n relation to a colleague who shall remain anonymous.

I could see why one might want to be important.
I could see why one might want to be a rheumatologist.

But I could not see why anyone should want to be an 'important rheumatologist' (or 'top psychiatrist' for that matter).

The other awful thought is that if he really is a top psychiatrist, what are the others like?

 

Makes me think of mountains and dung heaps, and who might be top of what.

 

Oh no .... many more wrongs than that!

 

In 2012 I'd responded to his 'personal story' here [edit: this was back when I'd only been reading research for a few years]: https://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?entries/simon-wesselys-personal-story-annotated.1054/

I've been getting steadily more pissed off by him since then.

 

Michael Sharpe... But they've been saying it long before the PACE trial results were even published, so...

 

!!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UtoYsQJdeM

 

"We believed the evidence would speak for itself, and it didn't."

The evidence did speak for itself, it's just that Wessely didn't like what it had to say.

 

On the evidence quote, I assume he’s saying that they produced good, rock solid results but the community were resistant/fears not won over rather than his evidence ended up being weak

Even subtle things like that are clever in the medical world where evidence based medicine is the mantra, and he sounds so confident in his evidence the problem was they didn’t worry enough to communicate to the dumb lay person, that sounds so assured it’s convincing. But ironically in the states the treatments aren’t supported as the evidence is weak.

 

As for Camelford victims some who have died- you can't "mind over matter" in that.... https://www.bmj.com/content/311/7001/395.2
"The small Cornish town of Camelford is the reputed site of Camelot in Arthurian legend. But what of Camelford's other claim to fame—as the location of the water pollution incident on 6 July 1988, when a driver accidentally dumped 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate into a reservoir at the local purification plant? As with many incidents that hit the headlines and then disappear, we are left today with a mixture of incomplete and contradictory memories: the aluminium sulphate made lots of people seriously ill; but mass hysteria was largely responsible for the furore.

A quick look at SW and Researchgate.net shows how terrifyingly thorough and systematic SW et al, have been in driving the BPS model of "psychologisation" MUS/CBT etc.for more than 20 years.

How the hell can we turn this clock round and damage limit when it is so systematically ingrained into anything and everything....??
The man's arrogance knows no bounds, nor does the wife's.

A reassessment published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research (1995;39:1-9) helps to sort out fact from fiction. Anthony David and Simon Wessely...

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Simon_Wessely/8
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/14186076_Gulf_war_illness
https://www.researchgate.net/public...al_Consequences_of_a_Water_Pollution_Accident

 

www.researchgate.net/profile/trickcyclist/SW.et.al/ only joking Simon!

 

The problem with Camelford (as an example) is that in situations like this there will be heightened health concern on the part of people in an affected area. This should be seen as normal that some part of the local population (especially those with either no science knowledge or other health issues perhaps or a host of other reasons NOT any kind of failing on their part) will focus on the event and it's possible effects. Many innocent people had their health adversely affected by the incident. They became ill. There was (I believe) a legal failing. And certainly a moral one that this happened.

What SW did was, instead of point out this was the case and as a concerned citizen make his own suggestions how to stop this happening again chose to wave his hands vigourously in the direction of those that had not yet been clearly physically affected and say 'look here, over here' this is all overblown hype these people are not even physically sick. Essentially deflecting everyone's attention from the real problem and tainting those who were in fact ill so that the reality of their illness came into question.

Unpleasant to say out loud but SW is a moral degenerate. There is much to support this view and very little to contradict it.

 

This post and the following have been moved from this thread.

Just read this from The Telegraph. Very cynical and depressing. Who is this "Simon Wessely" fellow? Seems to me like the usual discrediter you would find in major findings. And why does the article make the finding seem as it is a topic of controversy? Thoughts anyone?

Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science...-syndrome-may-picking-symptoms-not-condition/)