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.
About the Author :
Colin Brewer is a psychiatrist and writer and has specialised in addiction treatment, after a career as lecturer and research fellow in psychiatry. His medical journalism has appeared in the broadsheets, the Spectator, New Scientist, and regular columns in General Practitioner and the British Medical Journal. Several dozen peer-reviewed research publications deal with obesity surgery, abortion, and assisted dying as well as addiction. He edited the book I'll See Myself Out, Thank You, and is the author of O, Let Me Not Get Alzheimer's, Sweer Heaven! And Can Social Work Survive?
Review :
"The writing is entertaining and informative. This book, the first of its kind, deserves to be read by a wide audience and I hope you find it as inspiring as I did." - Professor Edzard Ernst, from the foreword.
"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."-Clive Coen, Emeritus Professor of Neuroscience, former Chair of the Rationalist Association
"I'm really enjoying this book."-Andrew Copson, CEO of the British Humanist Association
"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."-Theodore Dalrymple, medical writer and journalist
"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."-Michael Heap, clinical forensic psychologist
"A witty and incisive account of the importance of the placebo response in religious practice."-Henry Marsh, author of Do No Harm
"Well written, well researched, well thought out. I thought it was just wonderful."-Jeffrey Masson, author of The Assault on Truth
"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."-Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark
"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."-Keith Porteous Wood, President, (UK) National Secular Society
"A delightful mix of insight, information and anecdote: a must for every aspiring psychiatrist and neurologist."-David Nutt, Director of the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit in the Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London
