Royal touch for scrofula

1. Introduction

Version followed: the royal touch as historians document it, mainly Stephen Brogan's account of the English ceremony (The Royal Touch in Early Modern England, 2015, as summarised by the author, the publisher's chapter page and Reviews in History), Marc Bloch's Les rois thaumaturges (1924) as the founding study, and museum accounts from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP). Primary text: James Boswell's Life of Johnson (Project Gutenberg, Osgood abridgement). This guide covers the psychotherapist's own work with the history and its legacy. It does not present the royal touch, or any touch-healing, as a treatment for scrofula, tuberculosis or any other disease.

What it was. The royal touch was a ritual in which the kings and queens of France and England laid hands on people with scrofula, called "the King's Evil" in England and écrouelles in France. Scrofula was swelling of the lymph glands of the neck, usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, often with sores on the face and neck [source: RCP 2015; RCP 2019; Brogan 2020 blog]. Brogan says the ceremony began in France in the eleventh century and that the English crown had taken it up by the thirteenth century [source: Brogan 2015, ch. 1 page; Brogan 2020 blog]. In England each person touched was given a gold coin, the "Angel", later called a touch-piece. It was pierced and worn on a ribbon around the neck [source: RCP 2019; Brogan 2020 blog].

The core idea of how change was believed to happen. Historians describe the touch as an expression of sacral monarchy: the anointed sovereign was thought to hold a God-given power, modelled on Christ's healing, to cure by touch [source: Brogan 2015, ch. 1 page; Brogan 2020 blog]. Bloch's 1924 study placed the rite within theories of sacred kingship. Some French historians regard it as the starting point of the histoire des mentalités, the history of collective beliefs [source: Llinares-García 2019]. Brogan notes that even the touch's defenders were ambivalent about whether it worked, and that claims of an immediate, complete cure were rare. The Reviews in History reviewer adds that some patients came back to be touched again, which casts doubt on the cures, and suggests that stories of cures kept the belief going [source: Brogan 2020 blog; Guyer 2016].

Why it matters to a psychotherapist. The royal touch is a well-documented case of healing that rests on belief in a sacred authority, on ritual and on expectation. That pattern survives in charismatic and mass healing (see Domain XII 036, mass healers), in laying-on of hands, and in the authority clients may give to any healer, therapists included. Clients meet it through history, heritage objects such as touch-pieces held in families or seen in museums, literature (Shakespeare's Macbeth), religious practice, and family stories [synthesis].

2. Framework

The phases below are the psychotherapist's own framework [synthesis]; the number and format of sessions follow the client's needs. The historical phases are given in outline so the clinician can place what a client brings.

Historical phases (outline, as historians state them)

Medieval origins, about 1000 to 1485. The touch began in France in the eleventh century, was practised on and off, and became a royal prerogative in the thirteenth century. English origins are less certain, but by the thirteenth century the Plantagenets had made it part of royal custom. Under Louis IX and Henry III, religious duties such as alms-giving and the touch grew more frequent. From Edward II to Mary Tudor, English monarchs also blessed "cramp rings" worn against epileptic seizures. Brogan stresses that the early evidence is fragmentary [source: Brogan 2015, ch. 1 page]. The RCP says English tradition credited Edward the Confessor (reigned 1042 to 1066) as the first English monarch to heal by touch [source: RCP 2015; RCP 2019]. Brogan, as summarised by his reviewer, treats Edward's healings as occasional, unlike the later liturgical rite [source: Guyer 2016].
Tudor codification, 1485 to 1603. Henry VII codified the liturgy, and the gold Angel came into use in the ceremony [source: Brogan 2020 blog; RCP 2019]. The Angel had entered English coinage in 1465 and showed the archangel Michael defeating a dragon [source: RCP 2019].
Stuart heyday, 1603 to 1688. James VI and I touched about 870 people a year. Charles II and James II touched roughly 100,000 people during the Restoration, and by the 1680s the yearly total had risen to about 6,000. Public ceremonies were held at Easter, Whitsun, Michaelmas and Christmas, with a Chapel Royal cleric reading the healing liturgy [source: Brogan 2020 blog]. The RCP's 2015 page instead gives a figure of nearly 100,000 for Charles I [source: RCP 2015]; the two figures are attributed to different reigns [uncertain]. During the Commonwealth the touch stopped in England. During Charles II's exile in the Netherlands in the 1650s, some people seeking the touch were trampled to death in the crush [source: RCP 2019].
Decline, 1689 to 1750. William III dismissed the practice as a "silly superstition" [source: RCP 2019]; his reviewer reports that Brogan has him touching only once, and unsympathetically [source: Guyer 2016]. Queen Anne (1702 to 1714) revived it. The RCP's 2019 blog dates the end of the English ceremony to her death in 1714 [source: RCP 2019], and its 2015 page says George I ended it as superstitious [source: RCP 2015]. The Hanoverians did not practise it. The touch became linked with the Jacobite cause: James II continued it in exile, and the Stuart pretenders went on touching in Scotland, France and Italy until the end of the eighteenth century. The liturgy stayed in the Book of Common Prayer until the mid-eighteenth century [source: Guyer 2016; RCP 2019]. The RCP 2019 date of "after 1668" for James II's exile appears to be a misprint for 1688 [uncertain].
France. Charles X tried to revive the touch for écrouelles, in a ceremony the Revue du Praticien says "frisa le ridicule" ("bordered on the ridiculous") [source: Revue du Praticien 2018]. The commonly given date is 1825 [uncertain: not verified]. The RCP reports that Louis XIV is said to have touched 1,600 people on one Easter Sunday [source: RCP 2019].

Phases of the psychotherapist's work [synthesis]

Orientation and historical literacy. Goal: know the history well enough to respond accurately, without mocking or romanticising it. Move on once you can place what the client brings: a family object, a story, a religious belief, a current healer.
Recognition and assessment. Goal: understand what the topic means to this client (curiosity, heritage, faith, hope of cure, grief or anger over a failed cure), and screen for medical risk, such as relying on touch-healing instead of medical care, and for coercion or boundary violations by a healer. Move on once meaning and risk are both clear.
Safety and routing. Goal: get any current illness to medical care, and deal with safeguarding if a healer's touch is non-consensual, sexual, involves children, or happens in a coercive group. Only an interest in history, or no risk → go straight to phase 4.
Meaning-making and processing. Goal: work with belief, hope, disappointment, shame about visible illness, and the authority the client gives to healers, including the therapist. Move on when the client can hold their belief or interest alongside accurate medical information without distress or conflict.
Follow-up and advocacy. Goal: check medical follow-through, review any healer or group involvement, and, where a colleague or institution is involved, take professional steps.

3. Guiding principles

No healing claim. There is no evidence that the touch cured scrofula, and this guide does not present it, or any touch-healing, as treating disease. In practice, you never suggest that a ritual, blessing or touch can replace medical diagnosis or treatment [source: Guyer 2016; Brogan 2020 blog; synthesis].
Attribute history carefully. Numbers, dates and motives differ between sources (for example, the end of the English touch in 1714 versus "George I ended it"). In practice, when you share history with a client, name the source and the uncertainty instead of giving one tidy story [synthesis].
Respect belief, be accurate about medicine. Brogan's reviewer notes that early modern physicians, including Charles II's surgeon John Browne, recorded royal healings and were not notably sceptical [source: Guyer 2016]. In practice, belief in healing is not stupidity. Respect the belief, while keeping medical facts plain [synthesis].
Authority is part of the healing story. The touch drew its power from sacral monarchy [source: Brogan 2015, ch. 1 page]. In practice, notice the authority clients give you and other healers, and do not use it to direct belief or behaviour [synthesis].
Expectancy is real, but limited. Placebo and expectancy effects are a recognised area of study, for example Kaptchuk and Miller's 2015 NEJM Perspective "Placebo Effects in Medicine" [source: PiPS 2015]. In practice, explain that ritual and expectation can change how symptoms feel, but do not claim they reverse infection or other disease [synthesis].
Touch only with consent; never sexual. In practice, a therapist does not offer healing touch. Any touch in a client's life, from a healer or anyone else, should involve consent before and during, a right to stop, and never anything sexual. Holding and restraint are never part of therapy [synthesis].
Safeguard children and vulnerable adults. Historically, children were brought to be touched [source: Boswell, Life of Johnson]. In practice, if a child is taken to a healer instead of to medical care, or is touched without consent, follow child-protection routes [synthesis].
Do not moralise. In practice, describe the history and the facts without ridicule. The facts carry the weight [synthesis].
Cultural and spiritual humility. In practice, use the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview with its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions. Name a "Religious or Spiritual Problem" (Z65.8) only where it fits [synthesis; source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8; DSM-5-TR wording uncertain].
Clear roles. The psychotherapist never provides, supervises or refers clients to touch-healing offered as treatment. Where you have a personal role in a healing community that a client attends, consider multiple relationships under APA Ethics Code Standard 3.05 [source: APA Ethics Code; synthesis].

4. Intervention inventory

The interventions below are the psychotherapist's own work; steps not drawn from a cited source are marked [synthesis]. None of them is a step in the royal touch or in any touch-healing.

4.1 Building your own historical literacy

Purpose / when: Before working with a client who brings this topic, or when a client refers to a "miracle cure" by a ruler or saint. Accurate history prevents both ridicule and romanticising [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Learn the outline: French origins in the eleventh century, English adoption by the thirteenth, Henry VII's liturgy, the Restoration heyday, decline after 1688, Jacobite continuation, and Charles X's attempted revival [source: Brogan 2015 ch. 1 page; Brogan 2020 blog; Guyer 2016; Revue du Praticien 2018]. (2) Note where sources disagree (the end date in England; the 100,000 figure). (3) Know what scrofula was, and that it is now understood as tuberculous lymph-gland disease that needs medical care [source: RCP 2015; RCP 2019]. (4) Keep a short list of reliable sources to point clients to (see Sources).
Example language (illustrative): "Historians say even the touch's supporters rarely claimed instant cures. The ceremony was as much about faith in the monarch as about medicine."
Watch for: Stating disputed numbers as fact; presenting the practice as either pure fraud or proven healing. It is working when you can answer a client's question with what is known and what is uncertain.

4.2 Exploring a client's interest in the history

Purpose / when: A client mentions the royal touch, a touch-piece, Macbeth's healing king, or Samuel Johnson's childhood touch, as an interest or as a metaphor for their own hopes [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Ask what draws them to it: history, faith, monarchy, illness, family. (2) Reflect the meaning back, such as hope of rescue, wanting to be touched or chosen, or distrust of medicine. (3) Link it to their current concerns only if they invite that. (4) Offer accurate history if asked.
Example language (illustrative): "What is it about the idea of a king's touch that stays with you?"
Watch for: Interpreting too early; the client feeling their interest is being treated as a symptom. It is working when the client links the story to their own experience in their own words.

4.3 Working with a family heirloom or family story

Purpose / when: A family keeps a touch-piece or tells a story of an ancestor who was touched. The RCP notes the coin was worn around the neck as an amulet [source: RCP 2019; Brogan 2020 blog].
Steps: (1) Ask what the object or story means in the family: illness, survival, loyalty, faith. (2) Explore what was passed down with it, such as beliefs about illness, authority or rescue. (3) Help the client separate historical meaning from any present-day belief that the object protects against illness. (4) Suggest a museum or archive if they want to learn about the object's history; museums such as the RCP and the Science Museum Group hold touch-pieces [source: RCP 2015; RCP 2019].
Example language (illustrative): "Your family kept this for generations. What do you think it stood for to them?"
Watch for: Shame about an ancestor's illness, or a client relying on the object as protection instead of getting medical care. It is working when the object becomes a source of family history, not a medical plan.

4.4 Medical routing and the "no cure claim" stance

Purpose / when: Any time a client hopes that touch, blessing or a healer will cure a physical illness, including any current tuberculosis-like or lymph-gland symptoms [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Ask plainly whether they have current symptoms and what medical care they have. (2) Encourage medical assessment; do not interpret symptoms yourself. (3) Never advise on starting, stopping or changing medicines; refer those questions to the prescriber. (4) Agree a check-in on whether the appointment happened.
Example language (illustrative): "Your faith matters, and I'd also like a doctor to look at that swelling. Can we work out together when you could go?"
Watch for: Delay, avoidance or a healer telling the client not to seek medical care. It is working when the client attends medical care while keeping their faith practice.

4.5 Psychoeducation on expectancy, ritual and placebo

Purpose / when: A client asks "How could people believe it worked?" or attributes their own improvement to a healer [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Explain, without condescension, that ritual, attention and expectation can change how people feel and report symptoms. Placebo effects are a recognised research field, for example Kaptchuk and Miller 2015 [source: PiPS 2015]. (2) Add the historical explanations the sources give: rare claims of complete cure, patients returning for repeat touches, and stories of cures circulating [source: Brogan 2020 blog; Guyer 2016]. (3) Make clear that these effects do not cure infection or other disease [synthesis]. (4) Ask how the client makes sense of this.
Example language (illustrative): "Feeling cared for and hopeful can ease how symptoms feel. It doesn't clear an infection, which is why the medical side matters too."
Watch for: The client hearing "it was all in their heads" as an insult to their faith. It is working when the client can hold both the meaning of the ritual and the medical facts.

4.6 Assessing belief in sacred or charismatic authority

Purpose / when: A client attends, or is drawn to, a healer or mass-healing event (see Domain XII 036, mass healers) [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Explore what authority the healer claims and how the client experiences it. (2) Ask about money, isolation, pressure to give up medical care, and any touch or contact the client did not want. (3) Rate the risk as low (meaningful spiritual practice alongside care), moderate (pressure, cost) or high (abandoning treatment, coercion, abuse). (4) Choose phase 3 or phase 4 accordingly.
Example language (illustrative): "When the healer says something, what happens if you disagree?"
Watch for: Fear of punishment for doubting, secrecy, or money demands. It is working when the client can describe the relationship openly and make their own choices.

4.7 Cultural formulation and spiritual assessment

Purpose / when: Healing by touch is part of the client's religious or cultural tradition, for example laying-on of hands [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Use the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview and its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions. (2) Ask what the community expects of illness and healing. (3) Consider the Z65.8 "Religious or Spiritual Problem" code only where the difficulty centres on faith (ICD-10-CM Z65.8 lists religious or spiritual problem under Includes) [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8 (Unbound Medicine); DSM-5-TR wording uncertain: not verified]. (4) Draw on spiritual and religious competencies (Vieten et al. 2013) [uncertain: not verified].
Example language (illustrative): "In your church, what does it mean when someone is prayed over and doesn't get better?"
Watch for: Pathologising normal religious practice. It is working when the formulation reflects the client's own framework.

4.8 Working with disappointment, guilt or loss of faith when healing fails

Purpose / when: The client, or a relative, sought healing that did not come and now blames themselves ("not enough faith") or feels betrayed. Historically some people were touched more than once [source: Guyer 2016; synthesis for clinical use].
Steps: (1) Validate the grief and the hope that came before it. (2) Gently explore beliefs about blame. (3) Separate the person's worth from the outcome. (4) Where faith is shaken, follow the client's lead on whether to rework faith or step away; offer a faith leader they trust if they wish.
Example language (illustrative): "You went hoping, and it didn't happen. That doesn't mean you failed."
Watch for: Hopelessness, depression, suicidal thoughts (see 4.16). It is working when self-blame eases.

4.9 Working with shame about visible illness

Purpose / when: Scrofula marked the face and neck [source: Brogan 2020 blog]. Clients with visible conditions today may identify with the history, or carry shame and stigma of their own [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Ask how the condition affects how they are seen and treated. (2) Explore internalised stigma. (3) Work on self-compassion and practical social coping. (4) Coordinate with medical care for the condition itself.
Example language (illustrative): "People once came from far away to be touched by a king because of how visible this kind of illness was. What has being seen like this been like for you?"
Watch for: Social withdrawal and avoidance. It is working when the client re-engages socially and medically.

4.10 Holding touch boundaries in therapy

Purpose / when: A client asks the therapist to touch, bless or lay hands on them, or treats the therapist as a healer [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Explore the wish (comfort, healing, being chosen). (2) Explain kindly that you do not offer healing touch. (3) Offer non-touch ways to meet the need, such as attention, words and presence. (4) If any touch is considered for another reason, such as a handshake, it needs consent before and during, the client's right to stop, and is never sexual. Holding and restraint are never used. (5) Record the discussion and take it to supervision.
Example language (illustrative): "I can hear how much you want something that heals. I don't offer touch as healing, but I'm here and I'm listening."
Watch for: The client feeling rejected; any pressure toward boundary crossings. It is working when the need is named and met in other ways.

4.11 Safeguarding when a healer's touch is non-consensual, sexual or involves children

Purpose / when: A client reports unwanted or sexual touch by a healer, or a child is being touched or taken to a healer instead of to medical care. Children were taken to be touched in the past: Boswell writes that Johnson's mother "carried him to London, where he was actually touched by Queen Anne" [source: Boswell, Life of Johnson, Gutenberg ed.].
Steps: (1) Listen, believe, and record the client's own words. (2) For children: follow local child-protection procedures and mandatory reporting duties; consider medical neglect where care is being withheld; seek consent from adults and assent from children where it is safe. (3) For adults: support reporting to police or to any body that regulates the healer, if the client chooses. (4) Make a safety plan [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "What you describe isn't OK, and you're not to blame. Let's talk about your options, including reporting."
Watch for: Retraction under pressure from the community. It is working when the client or child is safe and informed.

4.12 Planning for safety at mass healing events

Purpose / when: A client plans to go to a crowded healing gathering. Historically, people were trampled to death in the crush around Charles II in exile [source: RCP 2019].
Steps: (1) Discuss physical risks such as crowds and travelling while ill. (2) Agree medical precautions and what happens if they feel unwell. (3) Plan a debrief after the event, whatever the outcome [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "If you go, how will you look after yourself in a big crowd?"
Watch for: Plans to stop treatment before the event. It is working when the client goes, or decides not to, with a plan in place.

4.13 Exploring power and authority in the therapy relationship

Purpose / when: The client idealises the therapist as a rescuer, as monarchs once were [source: Brogan 2015 ch. 1 page for sacral authority; synthesis for clinical use].
Steps: (1) Name the dynamic gently. (2) Share decisions and invite disagreement. (3) Watch your own pull to be the healer and take it to supervision.
Example language (illustrative): "Sometimes it feels like I'm meant to have the answer. I'd rather we work it out together."
Watch for: Dependency, or anger when the therapist can't "fix" things. It is working when the client takes more agency.

4.14 Narrative work with "miracle" stories

Purpose / when: A family or community holds a story of a miraculous cure that shapes how they approach illness now [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Invite the story in full. (2) Explore what it gives the family, such as hope and identity. (3) Explore what it costs, such as delaying medical care or blaming those who aren't healed. (4) Help the client write their own version, keeping the meaning and dropping the medical risk.
Example language (illustrative): "If this story gave your family hope, what would you like it to give you now?"
Watch for: Family conflict when the client steps away from the story. It is working when the client has a story they can live with.

4.15 Using history in groups or psychoeducation

Purpose / when: In health-education, heritage or group settings, using the royal touch to discuss belief, healing and authority [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Present the history with sources, such as RCP museum material and Boswell's account. (2) Invite discussion of present-day parallels. (3) Close with medical routing and support information.
Example language (illustrative): "Brogan notes that even supporters rarely claimed complete cures. Why might people keep coming anyway?"
Watch for: Mocking participants' faith. It is working when people discuss it openly and nobody feels singled out.

4.16 Suicide-risk assessment when hope collapses

Purpose / when: Failed healing, a serious diagnosis, or loss of faith leads to hopelessness [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Ask directly about suicidal thoughts. (2) Assess intent, plan, access to means (focusing on safe storage and removal only), and protective factors. (3) Make a safety plan and link to crisis care: 988 (US), Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland). (4) Follow safe-messaging principles.
Example language (illustrative): "Sometimes when hope runs out, people think about ending their life. Has that been on your mind?"
Watch for: Withdrawal, or giving belongings away. It is working when the client engages with the safety plan.

4.17 Responding when a colleague or institution offers touch-healing as treatment

Purpose / when: A colleague, clinic or affiliated group offers touch or blessing in place of medical care [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Raise it with the colleague and in supervision. (2) Check your professional code and the regulator's reporting route; report where clients are harmed or put at risk. (3) Under APA Ethics Code Standard 3.05, avoid multiple relationships that could impair objectivity or cause harm, for example where you belong to a healing group a client attends [source: APA Ethics Code]. (4) Never refer clients to such a service.
Example language (illustrative, to a colleague): "I'm worried that clients may skip medical care. Can we talk about how this is being presented?"
Watch for: Pressure to stay silent. It is working when practice changes or the concern is formally recorded.

4.18 Repairing after a dismissive response

Purpose / when: The therapist, or earlier care, mocked a client's belief in healing [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Name it and own it. (2) Invite the client's reaction. (3) Restate respect for their belief alongside your care about their health.
Example language (illustrative): "I think I sounded dismissive of your faith last time. I'm sorry. It matters to you, and so it matters here."
Watch for: Polite withdrawal. It is working when the client brings the topic back.

5. Handling problems

All of the guidance below is the psychotherapist's own [synthesis].

Stuck client: the history stays intellectual. Some clients discuss the royal touch at length but avoid their own illness or hopes. Gently link the history to their life ("Which part of this story feels closest to you?"), or follow their pace if it is purely an interest.
Client defends the cures as historical fact. Do not argue. Share what historians report: complete cures were rarely claimed, and some people were touched more than once [source: Brogan 2020 blog; Guyer 2016]. Then return to the client's present-day health decisions.
Client wants the therapist to share or endorse their belief. Keep a respectful, neutral stance. Explain that your job is to support their choices and health, not to judge whether a miracle is true.
Resistance to medical care. Explore fears about doctors, cost, past bad experiences, and community pressure. Agree on small steps. If the client has capacity, the decision is theirs, but record your advice. If a child or an adult lacking capacity is at risk, safeguarding duties apply (4.11).
Overwhelm or distress. Distress can come from discovering a family history of illness, or from a failed healing. Slow down, ground the session in present-day support, and offer breaks. For grief or trauma, reassess and treat with established approaches.
Non-adherence to the plan, such as a missed medical appointment. Explore the barriers without blame and problem-solve together. Check whether a healer or group discouraged the appointment.
Rupture after a perceived insult to faith. Repair using 4.18. Consider consulting a faith leader the client trusts, with their consent.
Disclosure of abuse by a healer. Move to safeguarding (4.11). Do not investigate yourself; follow your reporting procedures.
Therapist's own reactions. You may feel amusement, contempt or fascination toward the history or the client's belief. Take these to supervision; contempt damages the alliance.
Topic-specific difficulty: heritage romanticism. Monarchist or heritage enthusiasm can carry an implicit belief that the touch "worked". Hold historical accuracy and the client's pride side by side.
Topic-specific difficulty: political or religious debate. The sources record debate over Protestant and Catholic attitudes to miracles, and the touch's later link with the Jacobite cause [source: Guyer 2016]. Do not take sides on religious or political questions. Keep the focus on the client.
Suicide risk. If a client is hopeless after failed healing or a diagnosis, follow 4.16: 988 (US), Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland).

Sources

Web sources:

Reference lines:

ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances (includes 'Religious or spiritual problem'), https://www.unboundmedicine.com/icd/view/ICD-10-CM/945432/all/Z65_8___Other_specified_problems_related_to_psychosocial_circumstances
APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, Standard 3.05

Books cited:

Bloch, M. (1924). Les rois thaumaturges. Strasbourg and Paris: Istra (Publications de la Faculté des lettres de l'Université de Strasbourg 19). English translation The Royal Touch (1973) [uncertain: not verified].
Brogan, S. (2015). The Royal Touch in Early Modern England: Politics, Medicine and Sin. Boydell & Brewer.
Browne, J. (1684). Adenochoiradelogia. London (as named by the RCP).
Shakespeare, W. Macbeth, IV.iii (healing-king passage, as quoted by the RCP: "A most miraculous work in this good King").
Kaptchuk, T. J. and Miller, F. G. (2015). Placebo effects in medicine. New England Journal of Medicine (Perspective) [uncertain: volume and pages not verified].
Vieten, C. et al. (2013), spiritual and religious competencies [uncertain: not verified].

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