Meaning, Medicine and the 'Placebo Effect' (Hardcover)

Introduction: 'Pickle ash' and 'High blood'; Part I. The Meaning Response: 1. Healing and medical treatment; 2. The healing process; 3. Measurement and its ambiguities; 4. Doctors and patients; 5. Formal factors and the meaning response; 6. Knowledge and culture; illness and healing; Part II. Applications, Challenges and Opportunities: 7. Psychotherapy: placebo effect or meaning response?; 8. The neurobiology and cultural biology of pain; 9. 'More research is needed': the cases of 'adherence' and 'self-reported health'; 10. Other approaches: learning, expecting and conditioning; 11. Ethics, placebos and meaning; Part III. Meaning and Human Biology: 12. The extent (and limits) of meaning; 13. Conclusions: many claims, many issues.