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Placebo Power, or Does It Really Work?

Arch Intern Med. 2003;163:519-520.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Like a celestial chaperon, the placebo leads us through the uncharted passageways of mind and gives us a greater sense of infinity than if we were to spend all our days with our eyes hypnotically glued to the giant telescope at Mt. Palomar. What we see ultimately is that the placebo isn't really necessary and that the mind can carry out its difficult and wondrous missions unprompted by little pills. The placebo is only a tangible object made essential in an age that feels uncomfortable with intangibles, an age that prefers to think that every inner effect must have an outer cause. Since it has size and shape and can be hand-held, the placebo satisfies the contemporary craving for visible mechanisms and visible answers. The placebo, then, is an emissary between the will to live and the body.—Norman Cousins¹

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