Obituary of Michael Gelder Times 28/04

JohnTheJack · Apr 28, 2018

They slip in a reference to 'CFS'.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/michael-gelder-obituary-fc0mndtrz

'Under Gelder’s leadership, widely-adopted forms of CBT were developed to treat conditions such as social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, bulimia nervosa and chronic fatigue syndrome.'

Perhaps ME Association could contact feedback@thetimes.co.uk

chrisb · Apr 28, 2018

He was acknowledged in the paper by Sharpe setting out the Oxford Criteria as one of those assisting with funding of the meeting. His interest in the subject remains unclear.

Esther12 · Apr 28, 2018

I'd previously drawn attention to this section in a book from Jonh Bancroft, a researcher who'd promoted aversion therapy for 'deviant' sexuality. There are aspects of the mentality which remind me of certain biopsychosocial CFS researchers, and it mentions working with Gelder and Marks (Marks was a co-author with Wessely and Chlader of the first CBT for CFS RCT):

Then, in the 1960s we entered the era of modern learning theory and the development of behaviour therapy or behaviour modification. Here the objective was not so much curing illness but modifying behaviour that was in some way unwanted. One of the more successful applications of this approach was the management of phobic anxiety, by means of a graduated exposure, combined with some form of relaxation (e.g. systematic desensitization). Attention was also paid to the possibility of modifying sexual preferences, reducing, for example, fetishism, transvestism or homosexuality, a chapter in this history which is of particular significance to me as, for a few years, I was involved in it. Soon after completing my training in psychiatry, I collaborated with Isaac Marks and Michael Gelder in the treatment of fetishism and transvestism using electrical aversion therapy (Marks et al 1970). Around that time, MacCulloch & Feldman (1967) and McConaghy (1970) reported success, at least in some cases, in reducing homosexual and increasing heterosexual responsiveness by means of aversion therapy. I was interested to see if I could replicate their findings, using what I believed to be a better aversive procedure. I reviewed this literature, including my own research (Bancroft 1974; see Haldeman 1994 for a more recent review), coming to the conclusion that aversive procedures were ineffective, but more positive techniques to gradually increase the capacity for heterosexual response and behaviour without trying to suppress homosexual interest, may have some value in those individual who wanted to change. This, however, was around the peak of the gay rights movement, which will be considered more closely below, and I was attacked for my contribution to 'brain-washing' homosexuals. This was a formative experience, cause me to reflect (Bancroft 1975). At no point had I considered homosexuality to be pathological, but stigmatization of homosexuality was still strong, gay rights had not yet achieved the breakthroughs that were to follow, and there were still many homosexual men (not women) who wanted to escape this stigma and sought help to do so. However, I also came to realize that, by pursuing this behaviour modification, I was unintentionally reinforcing the medical pathologization of homosexuality. I also became aware of a further problem. Since the start of the 20th century when clinicians like Schrenck-Notzing (1895), using hypnosis, and Moll (1911), using what he called 'association therapy', an early version of behaviour therapy, claimed some success in increasing heterosexual interest in homosexual men, there was concern that any evidence of the 'treatability' of homosexuality was evidence that it was acquired and hence sinful. Havelock Ellis (1915) concluded that any one who had changed as a result of such therapy could not have been a true homosexual in the first place. Masters and Johnson (1979), in their book on homosexuality, reported two series of cases: homosexual couples who were having sexual problems and who were given the same treatment as ysed for heterosexual couples, with good effect, and homosexual individual who presented with 'homosexual dissatisfaction' and an opposite sex partner (mostly wife or husband), the majority of whom, as a result of going through a treatment programme, were able to enjoy their heterosexual relations more than previously. They called their treatment 'conversion' or 'reversion' therapy, depending upon whether there had been any previous heterosexual interest. Clearly, as Master & Johnson (1979) emphasized, their sample was 'highly selected' (p. 392) and certainly not representative of homosexual men or women. Nevertheless soon after it was published, following a prosecution of a British politician with a homosexual history, one commentator cited Masters and Johnson's results as evidence that homosexuality was always 'learnt', and it was therefore justified to take steps to prevent it by fostering anti-homosexual values.

A challenge to the pathology model of homosexuality started to emerge in the 1950s with the work of Evelyn Hooker (1965), who used various psychometric test to compare homosexual to heterosexual men, contrasting with much of the work by psychoanalysts (eg Bieber et al 1962) by recruiting homosexuals who were functioning well in their lives, rather than those seeking clinical help for psychological problems. She found that such 'normal' homosexual men showed a variability that was indistinguishable from heterosexual men in terms of personality characteristics. Her findings were replicated in a series of studies by Siegelman (1972, 1974, 1978), and we will return to this literature in the later section on the personalities of homosexual men and women. It is noteworthy that this research was carried out by psychologists, not psychiatrists, and, according to Minton (2002), gave considerable encouragement to the emerging homophile movement.

Human Sexuality And Its Problems
By John Bancroft
Click to expand...

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bI-Jau14aLAC&pg=PA256&lpg=PA256&dq=isaac marks homosexuality&source=bl&ots=EahcH42DBn&sig=FcaDNR4JeBD5OC3piJNA353ZQMU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mKeAUPqeOY3htQao0IDgCw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=isaac marks&f=false

JohnTheJack · Apr 28, 2018

Thanks, both, that's very interesting. Helps explain perhaps why Peter Tatchell has been so willing to support us.

chrisb · Apr 28, 2018

I wonder whether the missing link between Sharpe's CBT for CFS and Gelder is Hawton

They co-authored:
Follow up of patients presenting with fatigue to an infectious diseases clinic.

Sharpe M, Hawton K, Seagroatt V, PasvolG
1992 Br Med J 305 147-152

Hawton had earlier written:
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for psychiatric problems: apractical guide. Oxford Medical Publications, Oxford 1989 Editors, Hawtpn, Salkovskis,Kirk, Clark DM.

Clark had co authored with Gelder.

chrisb · Apr 3, 2020

Would you say that in 2018 it could reasonably be stated that CBT was a "highly effective treatment for CFS? Did not even its most ardent advocates make more limited claims for its efficacy by that date? That however is the claim mad in the tribute from Oxford.

New and highly effective forms of cognitive-behaviour therapy were developed for Panic Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Hypochondriasis, Post-traumatic stress disorder, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Bulimia Nervosa. These cognitive-behavioural treatments have been widely adopted in clinical practice, are recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, and provide better long-term outcomes than alternative approaches such as antidepressant medication.

https://www.psych.ox.ac.uk/news/professor-michael-gelder-1929-2018

It seems entirely plausible that his work in other fields was beneficial. But this is very revealing of the mindset. It is successful for other treatments. Why would it not be successful for CFS? "Gilding the lilly" in this way seems rather demeaning. That of course is the fault of the survivors of the school. Not of the deceased.

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Obituary of Michael Gelder Times 28/04

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