This abstract text is not about any specific placebo. You will find examples in other blog-essays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
See Empathy vs. Placebo<\/a>. In this text, with \u2018placebo\u2019 is meant deception \u2015 one way or another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About \u2018as quickly as possible,\u2019 see: To Placebo or Not to Placebo<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Placebo must go \u2015 from universities.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Worldwide, much is taught in faculties of medicine and psychology that, in due time, will show itself to be placebogenic. This is the natural result of scientific progress \u2015 perfectly OK. However, much is also taught that even now can be unearthed as placebogenic with relatively little effort, or for which the science is already amply available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shouldn\u2019t universities be truth-oriented? This acknowledged, of course, the gift of doubt is an instrument for better science. Fundamental doubt is needed \u2013 without exaggeration \u2013 to find out the really unexpected, possibly engendering some Kuhnian revolution<\/a>. Still, the momentum should be toward truth, which is incompatible with promoting placebo-as-a-lie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some researchers want to awaken all caregivers about the placebogenic nature of (some or many of) their instruments, then ask them not to enlighten their clients\/patients about the same. In my view, this is impossible. Soon enough, people find out and lose confidence in related science altogether. Moreover, placebo has several side-effects<\/a> that cannot be taken for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One more reason: Intolerance to placebo will incentivize finding out what underlies it<\/a> \u2013 from the psychological and bodily viewpoint \u2013 and how this can eventually be brought into the open. The power of expectation\/hope\/belief will teach us much about the human being that is also applicable in other domains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Placebo must go \u2015 from the broad culture.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Western Enlightenment can be seen as a nice gift from the West to the whole world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, if the West meanwhile lacks self-critique concerning its own placebogenic ways in healthcare, this amounts to arrogantly imposing one placebo over another under the guise of Enlightened Science. This doesn\u2019t go unnoticed by people in other cultures \u2015 just as their placebo is quickly unmasked by us (Westerners). Given the symbolic nature of placebogenic ways and the high status frequently involved, this may appear unimportant while being existentially crucial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People die and kill for symbols, you know, arguably more than anything else. History has shown this many times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Geopolitics<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We are witnessing a transition from a relatively short period of utmost Western dominance to lesser certainties, to say the least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This way, other cultures don\u2019t necessarily accept whatever we impose on them. Naturally, they want the good things, such as much of the resulting technology. That doesn\u2019t mean they want to swap placebos just like that \u2015 and rightly so. In my view, the Arrogance of the West substantially hinders worldwide progress toward the promising future that we \u2013 and our children \u2013 all deserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meta-placebo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This (new term) is the expectation that, in any circumstance, something conceptual must happen for any positive result to be possible. For instance, a pill must be taken, or a conceptually based therapy must be undergone. This is a widely active expectation in the West and, maybe to a lesser degree, anywhere else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meta-placebo is always accompanied by the adverse meta-nocebo: the expectation that no positive result can be achieved without any conceptual happening. This is the expectation that nothing is to be gained by the view toward profoundly inside oneself. In other words, non-conscious mental processing is pushed out of the picture<\/a>, with dire consequences. This hinders people\u2019s openness to, for instance, AURELIS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Any placebogenic occurrence carries the meta-placebo \u2015 therefore, also the meta-nocebo. On top of this, unfortunately, whatever direction we take regarding placebo, A.I. will empower it manifold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Placebo must go.<\/p>\n