Well, I guess I don't see Showalter as minimizing or disrepecting the very real suffering of CFS. I think she treats CFS with much more respect and seriousness than she does Satanic Ritual Abuse or alien abductions. But more importantly, I don't see how suggesting there are psychosocial roots of CFS does anything to denigrate CFS or the women who suffer from it. I gave the example of anorexia, sonce it's been ignored, I'll repeat what I said. Feminists ague that anorexia has it's roots in culture. There is nothing wrong with the girls per se, it is the world around them. I believe that many feminists who do this work point to the very prevalence of anorexia in suggesting that is it a socio-cultural rather than medical epidemic. To argue that anorexia can best be understood under the medical model is to ignore the very real socio-cultural pressures that lead to them starving themselves. And I don't think anyone suggests that pointing out that anorexia is cultural soehow makes their suffering less serious. I'm not suggesting that CFS is "merely" psychological and that a "good dose of psychoanalysis" would cure it. I'm suggesting that at least part of the cause is rooted in culture,l which makes it very serious, indeed, and would call for radical societal restructuring, as does anorexia.
frances
On Tue, 15 Dec 1998, cathy Livingstone wrote:
>
> As a sufferer of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (a horribly misnamed disease), I
> should try to explain why we do get so angry at being told that the disease
> is psychological. Showalter is just another of a long list of academics
> (mostly male) and medical doctors who have minimized our suffering to
> 'hysteria'. One academic claimed that it was a way for women (mostly
> professional) to escape a workforce that was too much for them. If you've
> ever sat with women suffering from this disease, you would laugh at this
> characterization - we all want to and try so often to resume our normal
> lives only to be phyically knocked out for doing so.
>
> First, the major implication of treating CFS as a psychological disorder is
> that all that's needed is a good dose of psychoanalysis and we'll all be
> fine. Since psychoanalysis is not covered by most health care plans (even
> here in Canada unless harmful to yourself or others), then each CFSer has
> to pay their own way for a 'cure'. If, on the other hand, its truly
> recognized as a potentially curable disease then governments would have to
> allocate reasonable amounts of research money to it, would have to cover
> treatments, and most importantly, pay adequate disability insurance.
> Showalter is simply accepting the neo-liberal status quo.
>
> Secondly, the medical profession itself has NEVER been capable of dealing
> with systemic diseases in their early years. I have a dear friend with
> Multiple Scleroris and when he was diagnosed 20 years ago, the medical
> profession was still questioning whether it was actually a disease. The
> analytic framework of medicine and its extreme division of labour makes a
> disease that attacks all systems of the body - the immune, neurological,
> muscular, skeletal, organic (organs) and cognitive systems
> incomprehensible. Also, if their current tests on CFS sufferers aren't
> showing up definitive results, then it has to be a phantom illness. This
> attitude is slowly changing (probably under the influence of medical
> professionals less caught up in the western medical paradigm). There have
> been more and more definitive tests to show a distinct pattern of CFS
> sufferers (in brain wave activity, for example, before and after exercise
> and an Australian group is even developing blood tests).
>
> Thirdly, as Marta noted, this is a way of diminishing women. There IS a
> psychological element to this disease - try having a really full life (I
> was in the process of finishing my Ph.D.) and then having been stopped full
> force. IT IS VERY DEPRESSING. The number of suicides of people who have
> this disease is extremely high. And a good part of this depression and
> anger (and suicide) comes from others blaming us for our lack of
> appropriate psychological demeanor, denying us any hope for treatment and
> then (after our partners have left us) being deprived of any financial
> assistance. A lot have ended up on the street. After 9 years, I've resigned
> myself to listening stoically to acquaintenances who coo, coo, say, "yea,
> I'm tired too - but I haven't 'quit' work." They have no idea how much I
> envy them.
>
> Whatever Showalter's intention in her statements, she's given credence to a
> movement that is, as Louis' piece showed, an attack on victims. This is so
> reassuring for all of us who have constantly survived not only our illness
> but these attacks as well. Perhaps she can also invent the miracle
> pschological cure for us all.
>
> Cathy
>
>