Books
The God Effect: How Suggestion and Ritual Shape Religion and Medicine through Placebo Responses
£14.95
The God Effect is the first book of its kind, revealing the way in which there is a common factor which links medicine and religion — the way in which people respond to the actions of doctors, by feeling better, is identical to the way in which people feel better after praying, being counselled, or taking part in religious rituals.
Colin Brewer, a psychiatrist specialising in addictions, charts a long history of medical treatments which turned out to have no effect on the patients’ conditions, but where people’s morale and sense of well-being improved because they believed in the doctor and his remedies. In the same way, belief in the power of priests, shamans, rabbis, and other religious practitioners, makes people feel subjectively better though often not objectively improved.
Dr Brewer shows that even if, as is often the case, the doctor or priest does not himself believe, the treatments, therapies, rituals, and procedures of medicine and religion still exert the ‘placebo effect’.
Surgery as placebo; priests who are atheists; hypnosis; placebo ECT; acupuncture; prayer; homoeopathy; psychoanalysis — Colin Brewer takes aim at a wide range of practices which — his researches show — do not work in the way their practitioners allege.
Paperback
292 pp.
£14.95
The God Effect is the first book of its kind, revealing the way in which there is a common factor which links medicine and religion — the way in which people respond to the actions of doctors, by feeling better, is identical to the way in which people feel better after praying, being counselled, or taking part in religious rituals.
Colin Brewer, a psychiatrist specialising in addictions, charts a long history of medical treatments which turned out to have no effect on the patients’ conditions, but where people’s morale and sense of well-being improved because they believed in the doctor and his remedies. In the same way, belief in the power of priests, shamans, rabbis, and other religious practitioners, makes people feel subjectively better though often not objectively improved.
Dr Brewer shows that even if, as is often the case, the doctor or priest does not himself believe, the treatments, therapies, rituals, and procedures of medicine and religion still exert the ‘placebo effect’.
Surgery as placebo; priests who are atheists; hypnosis; placebo ECT; acupuncture; prayer; homoeopathy; psychoanalysis — Colin Brewer takes aim at a wide range of practices which — his researches show — do not work in the way their practitioners allege.
Clive Coen, Emeritus Professor of Neuroscience, former Chair of the Rationalist Association –
“The worlds of evidence-free faith receive a refreshing dose of reality. It’s now clear that expectations open the brain’s pharmacy, influencing the mind and body systems that are beyond voluntary control. Brewer demystifies while prompting curiosity and wonder.”
Andrew Copson, CEO of the British Humanist Association –
“I’m really enjoying this book.”
Theodore Dalrymple, medical writer and journalist –
“Clear, incisive, witty, iconoclastic but without cynicism, intolerance, disdain or bitterness, this book will open many people’s eyes to the power of placebo. It might even make them feel better.”
Michael Heap, clinical forensic psychologist –
“An exhilarating and thorough account of the placebo effect in its many guises and its relationship with hypnosis. Highly recommended for the expert and general reader alike.”
Henry Marsh, author of Do No Harm –
“A witty and incisive account of the importance of the placebo response in religious practice.”
Jeffrey Masson, author of The Assault on Truth –
“Well written, well researched, well thought out. I thought it was just wonderful.”
Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark –
“Reason should be a vehicle that takes its employers towards better vision and distilled truth. I may differ from some of Colin Brewer’s conclusions, but I relish the conversation he sets up so that we can all face our belief-systems, whether theist or atheist, with a heightened self-scrutiny and trans¬parency. I share his positivity regarding ritual and its ability to explore the deeper truths of the human self and, what Larkin termed, ‘the million petalled flower of being here’. I also agree with many of his criticisms of religion when it is inhumane and when a defensive certainty takes the oxygen out of the air. Whilst I remain of the mind that ultimately reality is worthy of our trust, I find more to engage honestly with here in this book than I do with many religious fundamentalists or the casually indifferent.”
Keith Porteous Wood, President, (UK) National Secular Society –
“An original and thought-provoking exploration of the parallels between placebo effects and religious belief, written with clarity and clinical insight. A stimulating contribution to public understanding of medicine, religion and secularism.”
David Nutt, Director of the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit in the Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London –
“A delightful mix of insight, information and anecdote: a must for every aspiring psychiatrist and neurologist.”
John Illman, Medical Journalists’ Association –
“The book is the first about common factors between medicine and religion. It argues that just as placebos can make patients feel better by virtue of their belief in the doctor and his or her remedies, belief in the power of priests, shamans, rabbis and other religious practitioners can make people feel subjectively better.”
Lloyd Robertson, The New Enlightenment Project –
“It was my pleasure to read Colin Brewer’s new book The God Effect… [it] makes a valuable contribution to both medical and humanist understanding.”