“I don’t see any placebo there at all,” says Moerman. “What I do see is a clinician wearing a uniform of some sort.” Instead of focusing on fake pills, he argues, we should be looking at those trappings of medicine that make us expect to feel better – whether it’s the white coat, stethoscope, and gleaming hospital equipment of a Western physician, or the incense and incantations of a traditional healer.”
