Platt and Bodvar --
This provides a rare opportunity to pair you two up on a topic other than the intellectual level!
The witch doctor or mdicine man who practiced his ritual of herbs and magic potions on tribal cultures was believed to have supernatural healing powers; and that belief alone undoubtedly played a significant role in the efficacy of the ritual.
Bo asks:
Where do you place rituals in the static hierarchy? Or do you see rituals as "stability" itself?
I think Platt may have put too much emphasis on this aspect of medical practice. Reference to "ritual" came up only at the end of the Boston Globe article where it concerned a Harvard researcher's study of patients with irritable bowel syndrome. None of the three groups studied actually received treatment, and Kaptchuk was comparing the results of sham treatment applied "in a friendly, empathetic way" as opposed to a "businesslike" way, or not at all. Kaptchuk said nothing about "rituals" in his conclusions about the doctor/patient relationship; only that that "connecting with the patient, rapport, empathy ... that few extra minutes is not just icing on the cake. It has biology."
The power of positive thinking had a long history of success before Norman Vincent Peale turned it into a best-selling book. True, as Bo said, a positive attitude and placebos will "not heal broken bones or open clogged heart arteries." But it's an accepted fact, even to the medical profession, that patients who are optimistic about the outcome of their treatment recover faster, with less chance of infection, and live longer on average than those who are not. Some attribute this anomaly to "faith" (in God or the cure) which, if strong enough, may lead to a "miracle recovery".
Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, believed in total submission to the will of an all-powerful God. Her belief was based on the doctrine that whatever happens is because God wills it. Christian Scientists are known for not using medicine, believing that illness is an illusion caused by faulty beliefs and that prayer heals by replacing false thoughts with spiritually true ones. (Sound familiar?)
My maternal grandmother was a "Scientist" who contracted breast cancer in her 80s but refused to see a physician. She was cared for at home where she was visited by members of the church and cared for by my aunt (a nurse) who comforted her mother until she died peacefully in her bed at the age of 88.
Most of the people I've known who've lived long, productive lives were robust in spirit as well as body. This suggests that the physical health of an individual is in large part due to his/her "state of mind". We know, for example, that anxiety can lead to depression, which is deleterious to health. It follows that the person who is "at peace with himself" spiritually--whether by virtue of a philosophical worldview or a religious conviction--is not only better able to realize life's value while in good health, but better prepared to live out his final days more fulfilled and content than someone troubled and conflicted about the nature and meaning of the life-experience.
Thanks for linking us to this article, Platt. And thanks to Bo for pointing out that "it's the objective scientific attitude that has revealed the placebo effect and does experiments on it."
Best regards, Ham Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
