Magical thinking in medicine, then and now

Dr. Sherwin Nuland on a history of magical thinking in health care, and how it is still persistent today:

It was characteristic of these times that metaphysical constructs were decisive, even when they defied the reality of what could be seen. When observed phenomena did not match the conceptions of the priests, hypothetical structures, functions, and fluids were invented to fit into accepted structures of belief. Humankind will never be free of such patterns of preconceived thought. Traces—and sometimes far more than traces—of similar methods of justification are still discoverable in many of the nonstandard healing practices of today. They have been at the foundation of entire philosophies of sickness and cure.”

The Mysteries Within: A Surgeon Explores Myth, Medicine, and the Human Body, p48