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191:, Illich claimed that the great increase in life expectancy and public health experienced in his era was due to improved nutrition and sanitation, rather than innovation in drugs and medicines. He also believed there was an excess of physicians, surgeries and prescriptions. Therapeutic nihilists claimed such excess often led to malpractice and increase in
138:, in which therapies were given acutely and would be expected to have dramatic effects. Active medication represented, to some degree, the cutting edge of existing medical thought, which also led to assumptions and inaccuracies. For example, when cocaine was first discovered, it was described in medical literature to be useful in conditions ranging from
166:, a contemporary physician, said "the science of therapeutics should be made more certain" and that the "true knowledge of drug action is not widely enough diffused." When faced with everyday exigencies, many physicians were left clueless. The medical community shared these concerns: in 1888, the president of the
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was quoted as saying that there were "odious defects in the
American medical education system" and expressed concern that the ratio of medical practitioners to the US population (1 per 580 persons) was both excessive relative to actual need, and founded on a plethora of low-quality graduates of
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Therapeutic nihilism slowly faded in the 19th century as systematic reform of the medical education system took place, then reappeared in the 20th century in a slightly different fashion than prior. The aggressive empiricism of the 19th century enlightened the medical society of the need to
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thoroughly evaluate every aspect of clinical practice. Prior to the publication of rigorous research later in the 20th century, some physicians believed the most potent weapon for treatment was not medication, but the regulation of bodily secretions such as
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Around the late 19th century, therapeutic nihilism gained some prominence among medical professionals. Proponents of this view claimed that every man should be his own physician through democratization of knowledge. Cultural critic
162:, where the patient took the same medication consistently. Culturally, doctors were considered heroic figures when active medication worked while unsuccessful cases could be labeled as unfortunate and dismissed.
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in 1580. This position was later popular, among other places, in France in the 1820s and 1830s, but has mostly faded away in the modern era due to the development of provably effective medicines such as
209:, traditionally taken by physicians upon graduation, "... I will apply for the benefit of the sick, all measures are required, avoiding those twin traps of over-treatment and therapeutic nihilism."
310:
Rosenberg, Charles E, Morris (1979). "The
Therapeutic Revolution: Medicine, Meaning, and Societal Change in Nineteenth-Century America". In Vogel, Morris; Rosenberg, Charles E. (eds.).
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Therapeutic nihilism mostly faded by the mid-20th century, and some researchers have concluded that "therapeutic nihilism was replaced by an armamentarium of therapeutic inventions."
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In medicine, it was connected to the idea that many "cures" do more harm than good, and that one should instead encourage the body to heal itself.
93:, as now used, could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be so much the better for mankind – and all the worse for the fishes."
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Please help improve this article by looking for better, more reliable sources. Unreliable citations may be challenged and removed.
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was quoted as saying that "the stream of tendency of modern medical thought was toward a therapeutic nihilism."
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who were looking only for an income, leading to supply-driven overuse of medical therapy.
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In the 19th century, there was a lack of confidence in the remedies of the day.
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The
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This article is about pessimism regarding therapy. For other uses, see
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was one of the ardent supporters of therapeutic nihilism. In his book
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Cerebrovascular
Disease: New Insights for the Healthcare Professional
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Starr, Paul (October 1976). "The
Politics of Therapeutic Nihilism".
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