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Perspectives in Biology and Medicine

Volume 48, Number 2, Spring 2005

E-ISSN: 1529-8795 Print ISSN: 0031-5982

DOI: 10.1353/pbm.2005.0059

Miller, Franklin G.
William James, Faith, and the Placebo Effect
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine - Volume 48, Number 2, Spring 2005, pp. 273-281

The Johns Hopkins University Press

Long considered a fact of medicine and of clinical investigation, the placebo effect has recently been challenged. The thought of the great American psychologist and philosopher William James, particularly his understanding of the practical value of faith, helps to illuminate the nature of the placebo effect and the implications of this puzzling phenomenon for understanding healing and the practice of medicine.


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