Throughout the history of medicine, placebos have simultaneously been hailed as medical mysteries and shunned as a sham. “Inert” substances and procedures that have the capacity to solicit well-being, seemingly unbidden, placebos have increasingly become objects of scientific study in their own right.

We’re interested in understanding (1) how nocebo effects break down familiar dualisms, notably the objective/subjective bifurcation; (2) how nocebo effects demonstrate harm and cure as dynamic, relational enactments within clinical encounters; (3) how, in tracking the relationships between expectancies and harms, we can open novel understandings of how power is modelled within biomedicine.