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

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“6. The ‘wrong’ kind of social support…Your relative may discourage you from doing more…If family members have
been your carer during your illness, they can sometimes feel that they no longer have a role to play, which can
sometimes lead them to be critical of your CBT programme and deter you from persevering with it” (this tells
participants not to listen to family, but to obey the therapist, inviting the possibility that a family member
may be guilty of Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy).
“7. Cultural issues: some cultures have difficulty in accepting different kinds of illnesses, particularly if an obvious
physical cause cannot be found. This may lead the person to have many ‘unnecessary’ tests” (how does the non‐
medical therapist know such tests are unnecessary? This seems dangerous and unethical and may be in
breach of professional codes).
The next section (page 95) is titled “Work, Courses and Resources” (another indication that the PACE Clinical
Trial is about getting people off benefits).
The authors clearly wish to be seen as friendly towards participants, so they suggest that “some people are not
aware that they are able to claim benefits” and they list various basic benefits. They include Severe Disablement
Allowance (SDA), yet this benefit has not been available to new claimants since 2001.
On page 111 the authors return (yet again) to “Management of set‐backs” and inform participants that a set‐
back “can be dealt with quite easily” (this is inexcusable: where is the proof that a relapse can be dealt with
quite easily? Professor Klimas is unequivocal: “Certainly, pushing through can cause ‘crashes’ and the relapses
can last for days, even weeks” [New York Times, 15 th October 2009]. There is significant evidence that Burgess
and Chalder’s advice is erroneous).
The authors then inform participants that set‐backs may occur “if you stop using the techniques described in this
manual” (this seems to be coercing the participant to obey the therapist, as it states that failing to follow the
techniques in the Manual may cause relapse).
Burgess and Chalder also inform participants that if they have a temperature, they should increase their rest
for a day or so, but that participants should “not be tempted to rest for longer or until all your symptoms subside,
as this may prolong your recovery” (this seems dangerous, unproven and unethical advice from non‐medical
personnel).
Page 120 of the participants’ CBT Manual lists “Further reading”, which is essentially “pop‐psychology” and
includes “A woman in your own right” by Anne Dickinson (Quartet Books, 1982); “Overcoming low self‐esteem”
by Melanie Fennell (Constable & Robinson, 1999); “Asserting yourself” by Sharon & Gordon Bower (Perseus
Books, 1991); “Overcoming anxiety: A self‐help guide using cognitive behavioural techniques” by Dennis
Greenberger & Christine Padesky (Guilford Press, 1998); “Feeling Good” by David Burns (Avon Books, 1999),
and Trudie Chalder’s own book “Coping with chronic fatigue” (Sheldon Press, 1998) which tops the list.
The “therapeutic relationship” between participant and therapist which is central to the PACE Trial
seems not to be authentic because it is contrived and predicated on misinformation and so is anything
but “therapeutic”. It is quite the reverse, discouraging autonomy and leaving people defenceless against
the bias and indoctrination of the Wessely School. Indeed, it seems that the whole point of the CBT
programme set out in the Participants’ CBT Manual is to undermine the self‐confidence of the
participants. They are told not to listen to their own body; they are told they have thinking errors; they
are told their life‐style caused their illness and they are told that the way they have managed their
CFS/ME has prevented them from recovering.
Is this the purpose of a clinical trial, or is it the propaganda of the mental health movement, whose aim is
said to be “to ‘infiltrate the professional and social activities of (all) people’…via ‘perception management’. Thanks to
behavioural scientists, perception management is now pervasive….The Wikipedia definition adds the ‘imposition of
falsehoods and deceptions’, seen as important to getting ‘the other side’ to believe what one wishes it to believe…(by)