Abstract
How much does mind matter in the outcome of cancer? The extent to which treatment of the emotional aspects of cancer affects disease progression is ultimately an empirical question. There are those who believe that controlling cancer requires a simple exertion of mind over matter, but that one might cure cancer in the body by vanquishing it in the mind is clearly wishful thinking. Indeed, the popular psychological notion that you get cancer because of some deep emotional need for it has needlessly made many patients with cancer feel guilty.Others say that the mind has no role at all: . . .