MAGICAL MEDICINE: HOW TO MAKE AN ILLNESS ... - Invest in ME

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biomedical aspects of ME/CFS were rejected, many of which were submitted by established researchers with
a sound track record (Breakthrough, MERUK, Autumn 2008:8).
It is a matter of record that Wessely – together with members of the Wessely School – firmly believes that
ME does not exist, and it is his intention to ensure that it is eradicated as a nosological entity.
On 15 th April 1992 Wessely spoke at a Pfizer/Invicta symposium held at Belfast Castle (Eradicating “Myalgic
Encephalomyelitis”), where he said that ME sufferers prefer to feel that they have a ‘real’ physical disease –
it is better for their self‐esteem, and that the label ME helps legitimise patients’ dealings with doctors.
Referring to a programme of graded exercise for ME patients, he said there were “a very large number of drop‐
outs from treatment, largely related to the fear these patients had, albeit inappropriately, of accepting that
their disorder was ‘all in the mind’ ”. Nothing could be clearer: the conference report records that Wessely
stated that ME patients’ fear of accepting that their disorder was ‘all in the mind’ was ‘inappropriate’.
In 1993 Wessely wrote in The Lancet: “The inclusion (in ICD‐10) of benign myalgic encephalomyelitis as a
synonym for postviral fatigue under Diseases of the Nervous System seems to represent an important moral victory for
self‐help groups in the UK…Neurasthenia remains in the Mental and Behavioural Disorders chapter under Other
Neurotic Disorders…Neurasthenia would readily suffice for ME” (Lancet 1993:342:1247‐1248).
In April 1994 when Wessely delivered the 9 th Eliot Slater Memorial Lecture at the Institute of Psychiatry
(“Microbes, Mental Illness, the Media and ME: the Construction of Disease”), he claimed dual classification
in the ICD: “in a masterstroke of diplomacy it will be listed in the new revision of ICD‐10 twice, once under
neurology, and once under psychiatry”, an assertion which the WHO confirmed was incorrect.
In his lecture, Wessely made his position clear: “I will argue that ME is simply a belief, the belief that one
has an illness called ME….. .I will argue that this line here (overhead slide) represents not the line between
low and high cortisol responses (but) the line between real and unreal illness”.
Having linked ME to neurasthenia earlier in his lecture, Wessely then said: “there is another condition with
which ME might easily be confused, and it is hysteria”. Referring to the Royal Free outbreak of ME in 1955, he
continued “Royal Free disease is itself part of the world of myth…..It is a tragedy that the label of ME has been
transferred from (the Royal Free outbreak to CFS), and brought with it its burden of hysteria…..Organic diseases lose
their credibility as their psychological causes are recognised”. He also said: “No matter how bad doctors are, sufferers
still need to keep going – doctors are still the main passport to acceptance and validation of suffering, not least because
we control access to support and benefits” (http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/wessely_speech_120594.htm ).
In 1995, Wessely stated: “As an observer of the social scene, I know that ME is defined by the sufferers themselves”
and he described ME as “a social belief system” (JCFS 1995:3:2:111‐122).
However, on 6 th August 2002 the WHO confirmed that ME will stay in the neurological section as a disorder
of the brain and that the WHO has no plans to reclassify it as a psychiatric disorder in any forthcoming
revision of the ICD.
Despite the Wessely School’s refusal to accept the WHO classification (which is mandatory in the UK) and
their incorrect advice to Government Ministers, as a result of clarification by the WHO, Ministers were
forced to correct their own misinformation and on 11 th February 2004 the Health Minister, then Lord
Norman Warner, formally confirmed that the correct classification for the disorder (referred to by the
Minister as “CFS/ME”) remains neurological.
The ME Association Newsletter of March 2004 stated: “The issue mattered because the psychiatrists had stifled
access to research funds for any UK researchers wanting to study organic causes”.