Trash Science of Positive Thinking

So here we have it in The Times: the re-arrival of that great cliché of pseudo-psychology, Positive Thinking.

The ‘wearied souls in the pandemic’s wake’ will become a lot more weary after the Trash Science of Positive Thinking has taken its toll. Victim-blaming, gaslighting and the ‘all-in-the-mind’ philosophy of lazy doctors will become the mainstay of Long-Covid patients’ everyday experience. Just like the MECFS patients before them.

An earlier post reviewed the speculations of ‘nutty professor’, Paul Garner. Here he is again, stamping his name on the Long Covid band wagon, this time, in the Times. Science Editor, Tom Whipple claims: “A lack of data and definition is isolating the potential millions left with long Covid.”

Actually there is plenty of data e.g. see here, or here. If you’re a journalist and that data proves too complex or you’re too lazy to read it – why spoil your weekend – a quack can fill up your report with anecdotes about how he healed himself with positive thinking.

Here’s what Tom Whipple in the Times says about Garner:

More than that, his [Garner’s] is an argument that comes with baggage. Everything is political now. From some of those in the ME community, who say the idea that post-viral conditions might be in part psychosomatic has been used to dismiss their worries for years, his story, and his willingness to tell it, has caused deep anger. They find the idea they could merely think themselves better offensive. However, he still insists on telling it. “We’ve kind of got into this mess,” he said. “This illness has taken me to a new level of understanding of medicine. Where we’re missing out is by dividing things into mental and physical. Then we ignore that you can have some agency in getting better.”

Whipple, The Times, 17 January, 2022

A new level of understanding of medicine? Really? Are you serious? Then, please Professor Garner, keep it to yourself.

It isn’t new, it isn’t understanding, and it isn’t science, it’s unmitigated trash.