What does ‘magic of nature’ mean? Starting with the placebo effect and its relevance for biomedical research and clinical practice of today, this treatise focusses on diverse historical concepts of the ‘healing power of nature’. This topos was fundamental for natural medicine, life reform movement, suggestive therapy, hypnotism, romantic natural philosophy, and mesmerism. Such a retrospection leads to the crucial concept of ‘natural magic’ (Latin: magia naturalis), which was essential for early modern medicine and natural science. At that time, Nature (Latin: natura) was revered as a divine creator of natural things in the service of God, as a mediator of His wisdom for the inquiring humans. So, Nature was personified in many ways as a wise woman or magician, mystically adored by alchemists. At the end, the study returns to the present age. It reflects critically modern sexology and sexual medicine confronting them with certain spritually guided practices of ‘sexual magic’.
The 68 supplementary image pages stand for themselves displaying an emblematic subtext. Each of them tells an own story and is more or less self-explaining.
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Dr. med. Dr. phil. Heinz Schott ist Professor für Geschichte der Medizin. Von 1987 bis 2016 leitete er das Medizinhistorische Institut der Universität Bonn.
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