Book Review: Placebo
Review of an important book on the placebo by Dylan Evans.
|
Alternative, Complementary, CAM?
Alternative, complementary, or what? A note on terminology.
|
Why So Popular?
The expanding appeal of alternative therapies is one of the most striking
changes in medicine in the last 20 years. Why is this the case?
|
Key Ideas in Alternative Medicine
Certain key ideas are repeatedly quoted by enthusiasts for alternative
medicine. However, the intellectual validity of most of these notions is
questionable.
|
Cartesian Dualism and the Concept of Medical
Placebos
Doctors often regard the placebo effect as somehow unreal, "merely
psychological". However, this attitude is based on an unconscious
and unacknowledged Cartesian dualism.
|
Orthodox vs. Alternative Theories of
Disease
One of the most characteristic claims of alternative medicine is that
it offers a more profound explanation of disease than does orthodox
medicine. This claim arises from fundamental differences in the idea of
what constitutes a cause.
|
Why Me?
Patients often ask "Why me?" This is as much a metaphysical as a
scientific question. A scientific (though not a metaphysical) answer is
available in the new branch of knowledge called Darwinian medicine.
|
Anton Mesmer and Samuel Hahnemann
Anton Mesmer and Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, have a
surprising amount in common. Here I trace the outline of Mesmer's career
and identify the similarities between his ideas and those of Hahnemann.
|
Homeopathy in Perspective
My new book on homeopathy provides an overview of the origins,
development, and present state of this form of treatment.
|
Is Acupuncture CAM?
Acupuncture is usually thought of as CAM, so why do I continue to teach
it, given that the articles on this page are mostly critical of CAM?
|
Come Back Science, All Is
Forgiven
Reflections on my experience of the alternative/complementary scene over
some 35 years.
|
|
|
