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Oh I see! Sorry I misread that. I think you're right. The way they treat scholars outside medicine - like David Tuller - really is a marketing technique. Like presenting patients as dangerous to avoid revealing the original data from the PACE trial. Anyway, so glad to hear that you're...

Oh yeah. Saying you're not being treated properly is actually a marker for psychosomatic symptoms. It's not a diagnostic criterion, but its an informal marker. Nobody stops to notice that patients who are seriously ill also say these kinds of things. I know it's hard to imagine a world...

I really appreciate the kind words, Samuel. More than that I appreciate the very moving writing. I've felt the frustration you're expressing here, and the hopelessness, but I've never been able to express it. I don't blame you or anyone else for feeling like there's no hope of convincing...

You're right that in these sentences I'm painting things with a very broad brush, @Hutan. So pleased to hear you did initially receive a medical diagnosis - though wow, you and your children now. Really sorry to hear that your family faces this challenge. And you're right that there have...

Technically "medicine" and "psychiatry" are different divisions of the hospital that do different kinds of things. They're different chapters in the medical textbooks. They have different research circuits. When people are correctly put onto the psych care track, evidence-based research in...

Thanks for the warm welcome @Roy S. The Humpty Dumpty is hysterical. It's a disaster because they purposefully developed language that's "etiologically ambiguous" - so they've done all they can to make it hard to talk about the real issues. Oh yes! Big progress! The IOM report is...

Wow, that's a great point. I think you're right. Quackery arises from psychogenic diagnosis because people just can't stand to be ill so they're desperate. So if the point is to protect patients from iatrogenic harm, they need to develop a guideline that doesn't drive people to quacks...

Oh I see! Thanks, @large donner for pinning that down. The term "medical care" has become a real mess since the BPS people got a hold of it. Makes it so hard to have a simple discussion! They call CBT and GET "medical care", but that language was actually developed by psychiatrists to keep...

Very helpful to see that take on it, @strategist. I confess I'm having a hard time seeing past the insults. If this paper encouraged biomedical quackery that would be a very serious problem, fully agreed. But there is no implication of that kind in there at all. Ethicists recognize that...

Hello @Michiel Tack - Wow, I really appreciate the rigorous discussion. This is so helpful! My reply will be long too. I always feel so bad about that because I remember when it was a struggle for me to read. Wish I could do this in fewer words. So, on (I), you are completely right about...

Oh geez. I can see that you really want to disagree with me @Jonathan, and you're working really hard to find reasons, but the thing is that we do not actually disagree. You're just not looking at the paper's actual argument. If you like, you can just respond to the argument as I presented it...

There are so many interesting comments to respond to this morning! (I'm in Canada.) First, @Jonathan Edwards, I'm just not at all sure what to do with what you're saying here. My article does not say or imply, ever, that "it is unethical for NICE to follow the UK BPS consensus because it is...

Thanks, Barry - that's exactly right. I'm arguing for the opposite of Michiel's third point, and you've got exactly the right quote there. I'm not quite sure what you're asking about "mental health condition". In that quote I'm just saying that it's unethical for the guideline to characterize...

Thank you! And thanks to everyone for the very warm welcome.

Thanks, Michiel, for the suggestion that I join the discussion. I'm generally inclined to let what I've published speak for itself, but this article is actually about ME, and it doesn't seem right to let confusions about the article stand when I can just straighten things out. So, I really...

Hello S4ME! I’m the author of the article you’re discussing on this thread. For those who don’t know the name, I’m a philosopher and bioethicist who writes about psychosomatic diagnosis, MUS, ME, “bodily distress syndrome”… that kind of thing. I think I should start by saying that I do this...