Keith Kahn-Harris

From MEpedia, a crowd-sourced encyclopedia of ME and CFS science and history

Keith Kahn-Harris, PhD, is an Associate Lecturer in Sociology, Birkbeck, University of London, UK, and a writer who has authored several books.[1][2] Dr. Kahn-Harris writes on a variety of topics for news media including Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). He is a critic of the psychiatric model of ME and use of Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on ME/CFS patients.[3]

Keith developed ME after glandular fever at university in 1993 and considers himself "lucky" as he has relatively mild ME. "I work part-time in the sociology department of Goldsmiths, University of London, I have a wife and two children, I have travelled and experienced many of the things that people of my age have."[3][4]

Academic positions[edit | edit source]

  • 2008-9: Research Associate at the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths University of London.
  • 2007-8: Research Associate at the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths College.
  • 2005: Postdoctoral Fellow at the Advanced Cultural Studies Institute of Sweden, Campus Norrköping of Linköping University.
  • 2001-2: "Jerusalem Fellow" at the Mandel School for Advanced Educational Leadership in Jerusalem.[citation needed]

Notable articles and blogs[edit | edit source]

For many years, psychiatrists dominated the research and treatment of ME. The treatment of first choice remains various forms of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) which, applied crudely, can end up suggesting to patients that their illness is "all in the mind". The ME community is full of stories of patients being forced into exercise programmes that make their health worse, of benefits and insurance claimants accused of lying, of parents of children with ME accused of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Sophie Mirza, who became the first person to be classified as having died of ME in the UK in 2005, was even forcibly sectioned.

Of interest[edit | edit source]

On August 3rd, 2018, Professor Michael Sharpe, a key author of the PACE trial and proponent of the Biopsychosocial model (BPS model) of ME/CFS, tweeted out Dr. Kahn-Harris' article Denialism: what drives people to reject the truth[5] which discusses flat-earthers, climate change denialists, and anti-vaxxers all of which critics of psychiatry in ME/CFS including the patients have been compared, and by Prof. Sharpe at his 2017 'Special Ethics Seminar'.[6][7][8] It is unclear if Prof. Sharpe knew Dr. Kahn-Harris is an ME patient and critic of psychiatry's "crude applications of the psychiatric model of ME"[3] perhaps making an academic faux pas, or jeering Dr. Kahn-Harris for being a "denier" himself.

Open letter to The Lancet[edit | edit source]

Dr. Kahn-Harris added his name to the list of signatories for the open letter to The Lancet. David Tuller sent a third letter to Dr. Richard Horton of The Lancet on August 12, 2018.

Online presence[edit | edit source]

Learn more[edit | edit source]

See also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ "Books by Keith Kahn-Harris". Amazon.
  2. ↑ "Keith Kahn-Harris". goodreads.com. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Kahn-Harris, Keith (May 5, 2008). "What it really means to be healthy". the Guardian. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Kahn-Harris, Keith (October 25, 2017). "Towards an Exhausted Sociology". thesociologicalreview.com. The Sociological Review. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  5. ↑ Sharpe, Michael (August 3, 2018). "Denialism: what drives people to reject the truth". Twitter. 12:21 AM. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
  6. ↑ "St Cross Special Ethics Seminar with Michael Sharpe". St Cross College. May 19, 2017. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  7. ↑ Lubet, Steve (July 3, 2017). "Questions about Prof. Michael Sharpe's "St Cross Special Ethics Seminar" at Oxford University". Legal Ethics Forum. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  8. ↑ Vigo, Julian (June 27, 2018). "Resistance To Science And Technology". Forbes. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  9. ↑ Tuller, David (August 13, 2018). "Trial By Error: Open Letter to The Lancet, version 3.0". Virology blog. Retrieved August 17, 2018 – via Virology Blog.

cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) - A type of psychotherapy geared toward modifying alleged unhealthy thinking, behaviors or illness beliefs. One of the treatment arms used in the controversial PACE trial.

See cognitive behavioral therapy.

biopsychosocial model (BPS) - A school of thought, usually based in psychology, which claims illness and disease to be the result of the intermingling of biological, psychological and social causes. (Learn more: me-pedia.org)

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