The Placebo Response and the Power of Unconscious Healing »

Placebo responses are automatic and unconscious and cannot be predicted based on conscious volition. Instead, they reflect complex interactions between the innate reward system of the nervous system and encoded procedural memories and imaginal fantasies. The placebo response contributes inextricably to virtually all therapeutic effects, varies in potency, and likely exhibits its own pathologies. The Placebo Response further considers that the critical elements required to provoke placebo responses overlap substantially with what most current psychotherapies consider to be therapeutic, i.e. an interpersonal dynamic rooted in concern, trust and empathy. The potential importance of training caregivers in how to optimize placebo responses is considered a crucial feature of both the art and science of care-giving.

Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction     xi
The Placebo Response     1
The Basis of the Placebo Response in Sickness and Healing     11
A Brief History of Medicine and the Changing Implications of Placebos     29
Placebo Effects-Who Gets Them?     83
What Do We Know about How Placebos Act?     101
The Anomalous Placebo Response     169
Placebo and the Truth     199
The Challenge of Harnessing the Placebo Response     211
Bibliography     249
Index     265