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Magical Thinking
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Boardman, Charles R. Sonnenberg, Amnon |
| Copyright Year | 2014 |
| Abstract | The majority of diagnostic work-ups by gastroenterologists, including gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy, are initiated by open-access referrals or diagnostic consults from general practitioners and other medical subspecialties. In its response to outside referrals and consults, gastroenterology often functions similarly to radiology, surgical pathology, or the clinical laboratory in providing auxiliary diagnostic and therapeutic services to other physicians who still remain primarily in charge for the patient’s health care. In an appreciable number of cases, consults to gastroenterology seem imbued with magical thinking or strange concepts about GI pathophysiology, and a dilemma arises for the gastroenterologist on how to respond to such requests. In his book “The Golden Bough”, James Frazer described magical thinking as prescientific attribution of causal relations between entities not connected by any demonstrable natural law. Frazer divided magical thinking into two major categories: the law of contagion and the law of similarity. By the law of contagion, entities in proximity can act on one another with any manner of effect. For instance, by touching an oak leaf, a human can acquire the height of its parent tree. By the law of similarity, entities that resemble one another are linked causally. For instance, because a walnut looks like a brain, eating one will directly improve the eater’s IQ score. While Frazer analyzed myths and practices from a distant past among ancient populations, such patterns of thought still prevail in medicine and referrals to gastroenterology. The following two sections provide some typical examples. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1038/ctg.2014.15 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.nature.com/ctg/journal/v5/n11/pdf/ctg201415a.pdf?code=be407515-ceb5-4e5d-8b20-757a4f913326&error=cookies_not_supported&foxtrotcallback=true |
| PubMed reference number | 25393587 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1038/ctg.2014.15 |
| Journal | Medline |
| Volume Number | 5 |
| Journal | Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
