But you're missing the point.: *something* is working for them if they
believe it is, and is not for you or anyone who doesn't believe it is. The
question is how does it work? No, that's not good enough, because it too
easily leads back to premature assumptions. The question is: how can
placebo be improved. Not set aside but improved.
On Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 11:47 AM, glen <g...@ropella.name> wrote:
> Barry MacKichan wrote at 04/04/2013 10:29 AM:
> > I've heard it is very effective, but only for a time until the
> > patient discovers it is a placebo. Call it the Lincoln effect ("You
> > can fool all of ….").
>
> A friend of mine announced that she's now getting acupuncture for her
> chronic back and neck pain. There's a zealot in our local CfI
> (http://www.centerforinquiry.net/) group who continuously and loudly
> shouts about acupuncture being as quackish as homeopathy. (Seriously...
> is there anything as quackish as homeopathy?) The tiny amount of time
> I've spent looking into acupuncture indicates that it's mostly nonsense
> with some slight possibility of truth in regard to certain _pressure_
> points and nerve clusters. But nothing that an evidence-based masseuse
> couldn't achieve more effectively.
>
> But I kept my mouth shut and let her talk about how well it's worked so
> far. My dad also used acupuncture for a racquetball associated injury.
> He claimed it worked very well... [ahem] ... even better than his
> chiropractor. I didn't want to introduce any doubt that might interfere
> with her placebo effect.
>
> Interestingly, I was trying to apply the Golden Rule in a post-hoc
> analysis of my lack of action. Would I want someone to burst my placebo
> effect bubble? If so, when? Immediately? Or perhaps after some window
> of time as the placebo effect decays and it bumps up against the hard
> biophysical/physiological limits?
>
> --
> =><= glen e. p. ropella
> I can't get no peace until I get into motion
>
>
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MyIdeatree.com <http://www.Ideatree.us>
The World Happiness Meter <http://worldhappinessmeter.com>
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