“Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body” by Jo Marchant

Discuss the “Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body” by Jo Marchant.

What is a “placebo,” and why do researchers typically want to control for placebo effects in their experimental designs? What did you think about Marchant’s book excerpts? Did anything surprise you about these findings? Marchant (2016, pp. 16-17) describes research suggesting that endogenous opioids mediate the placebo response to pain (i.e., someone in pain is given a placebo and then claims that their pain is reduced). If we cannot ever trace a subjective/felt placebo effect to an underlying physiological mechanism, does that mean it is not real? That it is “all in the person’s head?” Why or why not?