Suzanne O'Sullivan

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Doctor Suzanne O'Sullivan is a British neurologist and author.

Book - It's All In Your Head[edit | edit source]

It's All In Your Head book.jpeg

Doctor Sullivan published her book, It's All In Your Head, in 2015. It is a book about medically unexplained symptoms and psychosomatic illness and includes a chapter on ME/CFS despite widespread agreement that it is not a psychosomatic illness.

Criticism[edit | edit source]

The ME Association published a letter by Lady Countess of Mar.[1] The association also wrote its own letter of complaint to the British Times newspaper in response to its review of the book that incorrectly referred to ME/CFS as a psychosomatic illness.[2]

British charity Invest in ME also criticized the book which they describe as "stigmatising".[3]

British charity Action for ME also wrote to the Times to criticise coverage of the book.[4]

Professor James Coyne has written critically of the book describing it as a "dreadful book".[5][6]

Patient and author Nasim Marie Jafry has criticised the book, accusing it of "recycling nonsense".[7]

Geoffrey Jones published a blog referring to the book author's "ignorant meanderings about ME".[8]

Wellcome Book Prize[edit | edit source]

In April 2016 the book was awarded the 2016 Wellcome Book Prize, and the author a £30,000 prize (around US $45,000).[9]

Notable studies[edit | edit source]

Doctor Sullivan has published no studies on ME/CFS.

Clinic location[edit | edit source]

The Royal London Hospital, London, United Kingdom.

Articles[edit | edit source]

Talks and interviews[edit | edit source]

Suzanne O'Sullivan is quoted in a PVFS article in ELLE Magazine Mind Games[10]

Online presence[edit | edit source]

Learn more[edit | edit source]

See also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ ‘It’s All in Your Head’ psychosomatic book storm | Countess of Mar challenges author to change her mind about ME/CFS]
  2. ↑ Failure to keep up with the research on ME/CFS is ‘inexcusable’
  3. ↑ INVEST IN ME Letter to The TIMES on David Aaronovitch Book review “It’s All in Your Head: True Stories of Imaginary Illness by Suzanne O’Sullivan 6th June 2015
  4. ↑ Letter to The Times
  5. ↑ Guest blog reviewing Suzanne O’Sullivan’s It’s All in Your Head With an Introduction
  6. ↑ Experts weigh in on Suzanne O’Sullivan’s commentary on imaginary illness in The Lancet
  7. ↑ Wellcome Book Prize 2016 - ignorance rewarding ignorance
  8. ↑ Proud to be Ignorant?
  9. ↑ Suzanne O'Sullivan's It's All in Your Head wins Wellcome Book Prize 2016
  10. ↑ Mind Games - ELLE Magazine September 2016 - Phoenix Rising - ELLE Anecdotes used to promote O'Sullivan, complain she's being trolled

somatic symptom disorder A psychiatric term to describe an alleged condition whereby a person's thoughts somehow cause physical symptoms. The actual existence of such a condition is highly controversial, due to a lack of scientific evidence. It is related to other psychiatric terms, such as "psychosomatic", "neurasthenia", and "hysteria". Older terms include "somatization", "somatoform disorder", and "conversion disorder". Such terms refer to a scientifically-unsupported theory that claims that a wide range of physical symptoms can be created by the human mind, a theory which has been criticized as "mind over matter" parapsychology, a pseudoscience.

See somatic symptom disorder.

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