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.

Richard Kradin, M.D., is a medical physician, immunologist, and psychoanalyst at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Massachusetts, and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. He has established expertise in mind/body medicine and is former Research Director at the Mind/Body Medical Institute in Boston, Mass. He has conducted clinical research in the immunotherapy of cancer and has authored more than 200 scholarly articles in the areas of medicine, including psychosomatic disorders and the placebo response.

Introduction. The Placebo Response: A Matter of Perspective. Sickness and Healing. A Brief History of Medicine and Placebo. Placebo Effects- Who Gets Them? What Do We Know About How Placebos Act? The Anomalous Placebo Response. Placebo and Truth. Harnessing the Placebo Response.