ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the processes by which iatrogenic environmental illness (EI) is induced and embraced by vulnerable patients and how it is exploited by unscrupulous physicians and EI advocates. It explores the power of suggestion and how it can be harnessed in service of pseudoscience and malevolence. The chapter describes the characteristics of cult movements and leaders and followers in cults, all of which characterize the EI phenomenon. It presents the indictment that the symptoms of EI patients are exacerbated by clinical ecologist practices contributing to patient morbidity and mortality. Physician attitude toward a treatment and enthusiasm for anticipated outcome can also influence the patient's heightened expectation and response to a placebo treatment. The patient described multiple medical assessments in which examinations and laboratory tests failed to demonstrate physical pathology. When an EI patient believes that his/her symptoms can only be caused by an environmental exposure, by definition the belief system is closed.
