Word: harrington
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...health and to realize that the power of suggestion still remains one of the most fundamental components of the delicate art of medicine and modern therapeutics. If you think sugar pills and saline injections are no longer in vogue, look no further than Harvard History of Science professor Anne Harrington's The Placebo Effect: An Interdisciplinary Exploration for a panoramic view of the current proliferation and efficacy of the humble sugar pill's descendents...
...smattering of graphs. Based upon materials presented at a three-day conference that was sponsored at Harvard in 1994 by the Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative, the collection would certainly function well as a supplement to the coursework of any History of Science concentrator. For students of the humanities, Harrington delivers just enough of the promised interdisciplinary exploration to illuminate the placebo mystery without drowning the reader in technical terminology...
...Harrington's introduction immediately gives an intriguing definition of the term placebo, which, in addition to being Latin for "I shall please," actually originates in the opening phrase of the Catholic vespers for the dead. This irony alone is enough to sustain the casual reader's curiosity through Harrington's brief historical summary of placebo usage and experimentation that also introduces each of the contributing essayists, who range from Howard Spiro of the Yale School of Medicine to University of California neurobiology professor Howard L. Fields...
...culture to present-day society, Morris' argument discusses the resurgence of placebo research and the role of endorphins with vivid allusions to historical and religious conceptions of pain. The capstone of the essay section of the book, Morris' work also prepares the reader for the long-awaited highlight of Harrington's concoction: an interdisciplinary dialogue...
...simple knowledge that information of the final portion of Harrington's book arose from candid conversation between doctors and divinity professors, neurologists and national health program directors, causes the reader to cling to every word of the last 40 pages. Some dialogue is amusing--Professor Spiro of Yale speaks of "feeling like a knight, very macho" when treating acute pain--and other comments are slightly disturbing: Professor Fields of California asserts that "part of what we do as physicians is to scare people" to add to placebo effectiveness. Anne Harrington herself contributes to the discussion of the placebo and each...