 |
 |
 |
| If
mankind had wished for what is right, they might have had it long
ago. The theory is plain enough; but they are prone to mischief,
"to every good work reprobate."
William
Hazlitt |
The
most important thing when ill is to never lose heart.
Vladimir Lenin
|
Man is a toad-eating animal. The
admiration of power in others is as common to man as the love of
it in himself: the one makes him a tyrant, the other a slave.
William
Hazlitt. |
I am still around but was either not well or otherwise occupied
lately, whence no Nederlog for a few days.
Today a little more about ME, from a longer piece that I originally
wrote and then decided to remove most of the personal remarks from,
and a few more links on the DSM-5.
But first a few words about my illustrations, that open this file,
that are portraits of
William Hazlitt and
Vladimir Lenin (last two
links to Wikipedia).
1. What I want to see done about ME
2. What needs to be done
3. More on the DSM-5
You'll find the orginals when you click on the images, and will
then find Lenin's likeness is a coloured drawing or painting, using a
photograph as original, it seems, while Hazlitt's likeness is
originally drawn by Bewick, and the left and middle picture have been
mirror-imaged.
Also, this seems to me the best picture there is of Hazlitt,
originally drawn in 1826. The original I used is discoloured, but I
have seen one to similar effect as the above in Ronald Blythe's
Penguin selection from Hazlitt's writings. The above images were
produced by me with the help of some imagining software. (In the
original Hazlitt is facing leftward.)
You find them here because I come from a communist background;
because Lenin wrote a booklet entitled "What is to be done?"; and
because I am an admirer of
Hazlitt, who long before Lenin's birth knew
why a project like Lenin's would fail.
1. What I want to see done about ME
What I am "fighting" for, by argument, that is: what I am
arguing for - which I cannot do, as a competent, able,
psychologist and philosopher on ME-forums, because someone like me is
indeed dangerous to false pretenses and bullshit by owners of such
forums, and by posters on such forums - is
- that persons with ME are treated like persons with other
diseases;
- that they get disability benefits;
- that they are not pressed into CBT or GET;
- that they too are medically thoroughly checked (instead of being
denied tests "because you have a dysfunctional belief system");
- that persons with ME are not discriminated, defamed, slandered,
and gratuitously offended by being called mad - usually trickily and
euphemistically as in "you have a dysfunctional belief system" - by scientifically incompetent
sadists or charlatans who happen to be professors in pseudo-sciences like
psychotherapy or psychiatry; and
- that ME is investigated biomedically, and
- that proper biomedical research into ME gets much better funding
than it has had, the last 30 years, at least.
Except for the last two points I consider each of these points a
human right persons with ME and persons with other diseases have, or
if they don't have them ought to have, while the last two points state
a fair desire, namely that the disease ME/CFS is funded and researched
much better than it is, and by real scientists, not by
pseudoscientific psychiatrists and psychotherapists.
Apart from these points, I am quite willing to leave things to
biomedical scientists, who anyway are the ones to find a biomedical
explanation for the disease, and base some cure on it.
2. What needs to be done
Here are some points that need changing to get an effective
"community" of patients with ME that can hope to achieve something -
and no: I do not mean that all or most patients with ME should be
"united" after some leader, banner and slogans; what I hope is in fact
that a number of competent intelligent and well-educated persons with
ME or advocates for them succeed in bringing about the following:
- Change of the leaders there are: The forums are ill led, and so
are the charities and patients' organizations I have seen, the
latter with a few exceptions and some excuses (such as the lack of
biomedical explanations from ME and the relative success of
pseudoscientists, especially in getting power over governments'
decisions as regards ME).
- Creation of a forum where rational and scientific debate is
possible: The forums about ME that exist are only effective as
social forums and as places to find information about ME, but it is
not possible to conduct any extensive rational or scientific debate
on them (and indeed probably not on any social forum where any
anonymous person on the internet can become a member of).
- Coordinated action and writing by persons who are scientifically
qualified, who can write and who can organize, instead of by the
unqualified, the half-talented, and the fanatic activist types.
- More good websites and blogs by persons with ME or advocates for
persons with ME: See
Some good info about ME and
some good ME-sites for examples.
There is a lot I could add here, but in any case the first point is
the main point: I am not going to follow any of the persons or
organizations who have set themselves up leaders of patients or as
acting for patients with ME, because I consider them unqualified for
the task.
In any case, as I have said before, in the end it is up to
biomedical scientists, who anyway are the ones to find a biomedical
explanation for the disease, and base some cure on it. It is true that
for this they need funding, and true that patients with ME have every
right to help bring about more and better funding for research into
ME.
The chances for success would be greater with better leaders and
better organizations, though.
3. More on the DSM-5
The previous Nederlog was in part about the DSM-5. I mentioned ME
agenda's site about it in this connection, and do so again, because
her two sites have a wealth of information about and around ME and the
DSM-5:
Here you'll find what is currently
the clearest exposition of these
imminent - possible - changes in internationally used diagnostic
medical and psychiatric manuals to be, changes which I consider to
be quite frightening if they are implemented, for reasons
explained here:
On the DSM-5TM.
P.S. Corrections must wait till later.
As to me and ME: The main things I might wish to say on these
subjects have been said already, by Hazlitt and Lenin.
So far this year I have kept up with
Recent
Changes: Summaries of relevant changes on the site.
