The Placebo Phenomenon

Summary:

The author Thore von Uexküll addresses the placebo phenomenon in various chapters. Firstly, he cites a number of examples from the field of medicine in which placebo gifts or interventions demonstrate their healing power. In the next chapter, "Nozebo, the misunderstood power to harm", he sheds light on the frequency of harmful effects caused by a placebo, or in this case nocebo (Latin nocebo = I will harm). Uexküll also mentions diagnostic measures in particular, which can also cause a nocebo effect. The author then devotes an entire chapter to placebo and nocebo effects as a semiotic problem, i.e. as a problem of signs, their meaning and their effect within different levels of the organism. He also questions the mode of action of pharmacological drugs and describes the role of the "setting" in the effect of pharmacological drugs as well as in placebo and nocebo interventions. In the final chapter, he relates C.S. Peirce's theory of the "three universal categories" to the placebo phenomenon and, on this basis, presents his extended understanding of the "mysterious process of healing" in his final consideration.

"A theory of medicine must be able to interpret the placebo phenomenon within the framework of its concept of the therapeutic process. [...]

This text is a preprint from: Th. v. Uexküll (ed.), Psychosomatische Medizin. Urban und Schwarzenberg, Munich 1994. This is explained in more detail in the chapter -Theorie des therapeutischen Geschehens- of the book mentioned in note l."

Source:  http://www.med.uni-magdeburg.de/jkmg/jkm_band21_kapitel7_uexkull/