The medico-legal issues raised by 'conscientious objection' constitute a particularly revealing, though hitherto neglected instance of the emerging relationship between community responsibility and personal health during the late Victorian period. The following paragraphs seek to indicate the relevance of a medico-legal approach to Victorian social history, and to suggest certain areas of resea...

A sample of 100 patients were selected randomly from 10 dharamshalas who qualified the diagnosis of neuroses and developed "trance". They were subjected to tests of suggestability, intelligence, guilt, hostility and neuroticism. Patients with "trance" were significantly more suggestible and expressed more hostility and guilt as compared to those who did not develop trance. Significant differenc...

In the present study assessment of Public Opinion of two groups, relatives and non-relatives attending the out patient department with the patients, were done. Analysis of the data revealed that both groups held heredity as the cause of mental illness and both groups preferred, significantly the efficacy of Psychiatric treatment like E.C.T. and drugs to that of Homoeopathic and Ayurvedic treatm...

Dr Davies discusses faith healing, its clients and the healing process. He suggests that typical healers often have a total faith in themselves, their working methods and their systems of belief, sometimes born out of their own previous suffering. Patients do well if they have faith (which needs to be distinguished from credulity) in their healers and this faith should be nurtured and valued. S...

Faith healing practices are common in the Indian subcontinent, for remedying physical as well as psychiatric disorders. Patients and/ or their family members often resort to such treatment, especially when dissatisfied with the usual medical care or when the patient has a terminal illness. The application of the principles of medical ethics varies across cultures and time, and with the ethical ...

This is the second of a 3-part series analyzing a recent report in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine claiming to have shown positive results (a 100% increase in pregnancies from in vitro fertilization) resulting from distant prayers performed simultaneously by 3 different volunteer prayer groups in 3 different countries. Part 1 analyzed the scientific defects of the study. Part 2 analyzes th...