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lectures > lectures spring 2003

Placebo: the belief effect

Speaker: Dylan Evans
7th June 2003

Can we really cure ourselves of disease by the power of thought alone? Faith healers and alternative therapists are convinced that we can, but what does science say? Contrary to public perception, orthodox medical opinion is remarkably confident about the healing powers of the mind.

For the past fifty years, doctors have been taught that placebos such as sugar pills and water injections can relieve virtually any kind of medical condition. Yet placebos only work if you believe they work, so the medical confidence in the power of the placebo effect has provided scientific legitimacy for popular claims about the healing power of the mind.

In this talk, Dylan Evans will expose the flaws in the scientific research into the placebo effect, and explore the limits of what can and cannot be cured by thought alone. Drawing on new ideas in immunology and evolutionary biology, he will present a new theory about how placebos work.

Dylan Evans: After a working as a psychotherapist in the NHS, Dylan Evans received his PhD in Philosophy from the London School of Economics and went on to do postdoctoral research at King's College London. He is currently a research officer in the Biomimetics Group at the University of Bath.
He has published five books, including Emotion: The Science of Sentiment (OUP, 2001) and Placebo: The Belief Effect (HarperCollins, 2003). He writes regularly for The Guardian, and has made many appearances on radio and TV.

http://www.dylan.org.uk