It’s best to remain positive about illness and medical procedures suggests a recent article in New Scientist. In ‘The science of voodoo: when mind attacks body’ Helen Pilcher summarises some research into the medicalistation of 'pointing the bone'.
Plicher writes that like witchdoctors; medico's, medical procedures and studies can adversely influence patients physical well being by suggestion alone. Two different factors are discussed when describing the power of the mind to produce negative physical symptoms. The first is nocebo the converse of placebo, when being informed about the undesirable effects of an inactive (dummy) substance, produces the described symptoms. The second is psychogenic illness where witnessing the symptoms displayed by one person creates expectancies in others resulting in a similar display. Psychogenic illnesses are often enacted en mass and are found to have no biological basis. The ability of the mind to produce negative physical consequences is memorably summarised by a great quote from a doctor that 'bad news promotes bad physiology'.
However one might want to be careful about just what kind of good news one chooses to use to promote 'good physiology'. As research by Joanne Wood et al. recently published in Psychological Science (summarised here, I have read the original but it requires access) studied the use of affirmations. They suggest that statements of self-worth that contradict other held self-beliefs do more harm than good. That is if you are low on self-esteem, telling yourself that you're beautiful and everybody loves you will simply trigger an avalanche of further self doubt as your other, overwhelmingly negative self-perceptions are activated by the reminder of yourself and the discrepancy just created.
Perhaps the same is true for disease, in such a case you may fare best with moderately positive thoughts about specific aspects of yourself. Rather than 'I am the picture of radiant health' perhaps: 'My trusty T-cells are winning the battle against this virus'. The mind is powerful and complex; we want to negate curses, not fulfill them.
...
Wood et al. (2009) Positive Self-Statements: Power for Some, Peril for Others. Psychological Science: 20, 7, pp 860 - 866
Image by Jeremy Burgin
Plicher writes that like witchdoctors; medico's, medical procedures and studies can adversely influence patients physical well being by suggestion alone. Two different factors are discussed when describing the power of the mind to produce negative physical symptoms. The first is nocebo the converse of placebo, when being informed about the undesirable effects of an inactive (dummy) substance, produces the described symptoms. The second is psychogenic illness where witnessing the symptoms displayed by one person creates expectancies in others resulting in a similar display. Psychogenic illnesses are often enacted en mass and are found to have no biological basis. The ability of the mind to produce negative physical consequences is memorably summarised by a great quote from a doctor that 'bad news promotes bad physiology'.
However one might want to be careful about just what kind of good news one chooses to use to promote 'good physiology'. As research by Joanne Wood et al. recently published in Psychological Science (summarised here, I have read the original but it requires access) studied the use of affirmations. They suggest that statements of self-worth that contradict other held self-beliefs do more harm than good. That is if you are low on self-esteem, telling yourself that you're beautiful and everybody loves you will simply trigger an avalanche of further self doubt as your other, overwhelmingly negative self-perceptions are activated by the reminder of yourself and the discrepancy just created.
Perhaps the same is true for disease, in such a case you may fare best with moderately positive thoughts about specific aspects of yourself. Rather than 'I am the picture of radiant health' perhaps: 'My trusty T-cells are winning the battle against this virus'. The mind is powerful and complex; we want to negate curses, not fulfill them.
...
Wood et al. (2009) Positive Self-Statements: Power for Some, Peril for Others. Psychological Science: 20, 7, pp 860 - 866
Image by Jeremy Burgin
0 comments:
Post a Comment