Is there a history of the nocebo effect? Global reflections

Based at Durham University, we are the UK's first Institute for Medical Humanities. Our research explores human experiences of health and ill-health using an interdisciplinary arts and humanities approach.

Institute for Medical Humanities

Dr Rob Boddice puts the case for a history of the nocebo effect and the power of situated belief to cause real and lasting harm.

Institute for Medical Humanities, Confluence Building, Durham University

This event is delivered as part of the Durham University Research Institutes: Global research tackling global challenges eventsCollective trauma has had many names. Mass psychogenic illness, mass sociogenic illness, reactive psychological disaster syndrome, mass hysteria and choreomania are some of them. Outbreaks are documented from ancient times to the present, all around the world, from medieval tarantism and compulsive dancing to eighteenth-century convulsionnaires; from hysterical tetanus outbreaks in the nineteenth century to sudden onset collective Tourettes in the twenty-first. Indicative research suggests that some forms of long-Covid also belong in this category.What do these collective illnesses have in common? How can historians make sense of the real psychological and bodily experiences of the collectively afflicted in the absence of pathological causes, normatively conceived? In this seminar, <a href="https://www.tuni.fi/en/robert-boddice" title="https://www.tuni.fi/en/robert-boddice" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Dr Rob Boddice</a> puts the case for a history of the nocebo effect and the power of situated belief to cause real and lasting harm. Based on interdisciplinary medical and neuroscientific research, this is an exploratory venture into the historicity of biocultural plasticity and the dynamics of human experience.A bout the speakers:<a href="https://www.tuni.fi/en/robert-boddice" title="https://www.tuni.fi/en/robert-boddice" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Rob Boddice</a> PhD, FRHistS, is Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Research Council Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences, Tampere University, Finland, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Social Studies of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Boddice is the author/editor of 14 books, with translations in 10 languages. His most recent work is Knowing Pain: A History of Sensation, Emotion and Experience (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2023). Please note, the zoom details for online attendees will be circulated 24 hrs before the start of the event. This event is part of <a href="https://www.durham.ac.uk/global-durham/durham-global-week/events/" title="https://www.durham.ac.uk/global-durham/durham-global-week/events/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Durham Global Week</a>. It is hosted by <a href="https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/medical-humanities/our-research/strands/thinking-feeling-imagining/" title="https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/medical-humanities/our-research/strands/thinking-feeling-imagining/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Thinking, Feeling, Imagining</a> as part of the 2023-24 IMH Hidden Experience Seminar Series, which centres on hidden experiences of health and illness. For more information about the series, please visit our <a href="https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/medical-humanities/about-us/news/announcing-new-imh-hidden-experience-seminar-series/" title="https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/medical-humanities/about-us/news/announcing-new-imh-hidden-experience-seminar-series/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">website</a>.

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