From Keith Walters
As a 20-year veteran of being ear-bashed on just about every “alternative”
regime that one could imagine
(26 May, p 28), I have arrived at one simple
conclusion: yes, scientifically implausible treatments often do appear to work,
but unfortunately “appear” is the operative word.
It seems to me that people keep using or administering these remedies because
they have a clear memory of the treatments working for them in the past. In all
my years as an outside observer, I have never once seen any compelling evidence
that they do anything at all. The adherents seem to get sick and recover at
precisely the same rate as everybody else.
The obvious conclusion is that they really do “remember” the treatment
working, both for themselves and others, but it’s simply a case of false-memory
syndrome.
As for the heart-warming story about the homeopath Bob Leckridge and the
little boy who hated buttons, I’m afraid I have to be a total curmudgeon and
say: yes, lovely story, but did it really happen like that? I’ve heard similar
glowing stories from parents of children with behavioural and other problems,
but I’ve never once seen any hard evidence of any such dramatic results. What
seems to happen is that the normal—if sometimes protracted—childhood
process of “growing out” of problems becomes magically “time compressed” in the
memories of the loving parents.
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Riverstone, NSW
