this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2024
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“psychosomatics” the branch of medicine trying to apply psychology to all diseases is a perfect example of this.
“Your bodily functions are controlled by your thoughts and therefore all you have to do to get better from physical diseases is stop thinking you are ill.” It’s a super ableist and sexist (it’s mainly applied to women) pseudoscience that unfortunately is still present in some medical corners.
If we had the knowledge and absolute control of our brains, we could defeat disease. But fuck me, we're in the dark ages of medicine given what we know vs. what's unknown. We might never be able to control our physiology that finely.
that’s ridiculous.
structural damage in the body wont go away by thinking it away.
Diseases based on dyregulations and problematic pathways might be helped if we manage to control the ANS but the ANS is by definition not capable of being controlled by thoughts.
I thought that was the name for mental things affecting the body?
Like wanting to pee when stressed about a presentation you're about to do.
That’s about the extent to which there is scientific evidence backing the “mind-body” stuff.
But in the 40s mixed with american eugencisim and facist countercurrents in the US was where the american physochosomatic movement thirved, and the goal of that was explicitly to show every illness can be controlled by the mind.
You can see effects throughout. Look in the 80s and you will have a bunch of research saying cognitive behavioural therapy is effective for breast cancer. HIV was blamed on psychosomatics (or hysteria) before a cause was found, same with Lupus, Peptic Ulcer, ME/CFS.
Still these days you have minority countercultures in medicine claiming this stuff works for MS, IBD etc (with little evidence).