There seems to be little doubt that the multitude of interventions offered by the CAM industry are devoid of efficacy and any clinical improvement seen is a combination of chance and the universal placebo effect. No specific CAM modality is any better than any other it seems though there are virtually no trials comparing assorted modalities of CAM.
CAM is thus a form of psychotherapy characterised however by the specific dimension of subterfuge. The practitioner misleads the patient as to the mechanism. The practitioner lies to the patient.
That this arrangement is acceptable to patients should not deflect us from recognising its true nature and speculating on the dynamics and indeed the potential for lasting benefit. (Relapse and recurrence of course benefit the practitioner if not the patient)g
Thus CAM is a branch of psychotherapy which bypasses an honest adult engagement with the patient, which encourages self awareness and participation in the treatment, Orthodox psychotherapeutic manoeuvres are diametrically opposed to such a relationship and engage explicitly with the patient's active participation whether on an acute short term procedure such as hypnotherapy or at the opposite extreme the lifelong (it seems) engagement with (equally ineffectual) psycho-analysis.
