The Fake Medicine

In the 18th century, a physician discovered that a treatment can sometimes work... even when it contains no real remedy. This idea would give birth to the placebo effect, today at the heart of modern clinical trials. Most troubling is that the brain sometimes seems capable of improving certain symptoms simply because it believes it is being treated.

At the end of the 18th century, an Austrian physician named Franz Anton Mesmer became famous throughout Europe thanks to a strange method called "animal magnetism." According to him, an invisible force circulates in the human body and can be manipulated to cure certain diseases.

Mesmer organized spectacular sessions during which patients touched metal tubs, held iron rods, or participated in collective rituals in an almost theatrical atmosphere. Several people claimed to feel very real improvements: reduced pains, calmed crises, or sensation of well-being. The phenomenon intrigued so much that King Louis XVI requested an official investigation. A scientific commission was created, with among its members Benjamin Franklin and the chemist Lavoisier. The researchers then conducted an experiment that became historic. They observed that certain patients reacted even when no "magnetism" was actually applied. Conversely, others felt nothing when they were unaware of being treated.

The conclusion was revolutionary: part of the effects came not from a mysterious force, but from the patients' own psychological expectations. In other words, believing that a treatment works can sometimes produce real effects on the body. This discovery marks the distant origin of what would later be called the placebo effect. Even today, modern clinical trials use placebo groups to verify whether a medication really acts beyond psychological expectations.

The phenomenon remains fascinating because it shows that the brain profoundly influences certain pains, sensations, or physical symptoms. In certain cases, patients can feel a measurable improvement simply because they think they are receiving a real treatment. The story becomes even stranger with the "nocebo," the inverse of placebo: when a person expects negative effects, they can sometimes really feel them even with a neutral substance. The experiments around Mesmer seemed almost esoteric in their time, but they finally contributed to transforming modern medicine. Behind the extravagant stagings and dubious theories hid a major discovery: the patient's mind is also part of the treatment.