But you&#x27;re being a bit dogmatic.  We use psychological techniques to reduce pain in, for example, cancer patients.<p>You&#x27;re reducing pain to some reaction to the physical world, but we see that some people have pain with no physical stimulus; and we some people who can reduce their pain even though there are physical stimuli present.<p>When you properly control a study on pain meds you see such a strong placebo response that it&#x27;s hard to justify using the meds:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=10351230" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=10351230</a><p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;strong-placebo-response-thwarts-painkiller-trials-1.18511" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;strong-placebo-response-thwarts-p...</a>