ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the most compelling pieces of evidence that health issues are not purely understandable in terms of their biophysical causality: the well-documented phenomenon of the placebo effect. The placebo effect was first described by anaesthesiologist Henry K. Beecher. In terms of explaining the placebo effect, if someone is in pain, first they must escape the source of the pain. The chapter considers in more detail how a critical realist conception of interdisciplinarity can guide health and wellbeing professionals at each stage of the medical programme, from initially deciding on whether or not a disease exists, to finding a cure and healing it. Once the intervention is at hand, it may be useful to switch off the "fight or flee" response even before administering the intervention to ensure its optimal functioning.
