The Placebo Response

Lecture Description

Dr. Richard Kradin is one of the US’s foremost experts in mind-body medicine, a research immunologist, Jungian analyst, and former Research Director of the Harvard Medical School Mind/Body Medical Institute. He explores the question of how the placebo works, and why it works.

In this lecture he poses arguably the most important question in the world of medicine today: what triggers the healing response?

Placebo responses are automatic and unconscious and cannot be predicted based on conscious volition. Instead, they reflect complex interactions between the innate reward system of the nervous system and memories and imaginal fantasies. The placebo response contributes inextricably to virtually all therapeutic effects, varies in potency, and likely exhibits its own pathologies. The Placebo Response further considers that the critical elements required to provoke placebo responses overlap substantially with what most current psychotherapies consider to be therapeutic, i.e. an interpersonal dynamic rooted in concern, trust and empathy.

The potential importance of training caregivers in how to optimize placebo responses is considered a crucial feature of both the art and science of care-giving.

Who would enjoy this lecture

• The placebo response and how it relates to mental health therapy
• The body-mind connection
• Ways to trigger and elicit the healing response