The ‘placebo-effect’ is the most enigmatic phenomenon in medicine.On the theoretical level the concept already defeats itself, as a placebo by definition has no effect. Yet practitioners know that the phenomenon is real. It therefore demands an explanation: Suggestion? Illusion? Superstition? Deceit? Or perhaps magic? Then the phenomenon itself would by definition appear to be beyond the reach of scientific explanation and therefore would be unreal. Yet practitioners know etc.Is there a way out of this dilemma?Yes. Only we, adults, especially scientifically trained adults, do not accept magic as a normal phenomenon in our existence. In the Lebenswelt (life-world, as Edmund Husserl calls it) of any normal child magic is a fully accepted phenomenon. Up to a certain age children do not even want to know how magic works -perhaps because they feel instinctively that by their curiosity they would break the spell of the magic.Could we come to see the child as such as a ‘model’ for an explanation of the so called placebo-effect?
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