Homeopathy or the placebo effect?
What's the
difference? Homœopathy is placebo: water, alcohol, or some other
vehicle wherefrom all active ingredients have been purged (by massive dilution).
Honest placebos differ from homœopathy in that no pretence is made of
containing an active ingredient.
Or do they have the same answer
for some reason?
Again, homœopathic "preparations" are a
strict subset of placebos. (Many homœopaths peddle herbals also. These
are not homœopathic, by definition.) Placebo is defined to have no actual
physiological effect. Homœopathic stuff doesn't have any either —
that's what makes homœopathic preparations a subset of placebos.
There
is a placebo ("I shall please") effect: it's purely emotional, but not of any
healing kind. The subject is calmed by the attention and the promise (false
though it may be) of improvement. This has a positive effect on the patients
emotional issues about whatever physiological problem may exist. If there is no
problem or if the problem is self-resolving, then the placebo effect may appear
curative — the subject convinces himself that the placebo (or
homœopathy) did something useful. In any case where there is an actual
physiological problem that doesn't resolve by itself, a placebo
(homœopathic or otherwise) has no non-subjective
effect. ---
--Bill. NAL: question the answers, especially mine. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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