It's being looked down by the same people that tend to believe in miracle cures. One has to make his own reality true in order to cope with society and scrutiny. Placebo is required in trials for new medicine actually, far from being looked down upon.
Negative thinking can have a detrimental effect on physical health - usually labelled as stress. It seems completely reasonable that positive thinking could have positive heath benefits (assuming that our base line is somewhere in the middle between positive and negative). We should be investigating the mechanisms and encouraging people to do what has positive results.
Homeopathy sounds like a lot quackery to me, but if it works (via placebo or otherwise) and can improve peoples outcomes in a cost effective manner, then I am all for it.
>Negative thinking can have a detrimental effect on physical health - usually labelled as stress. It seems completely reasonable that positive thinking could have positive heath benefits
Sure. But that's neither here nor there, as bathing in ice cold water is not the mechanism - positive thinking is.
The idea that the Hof's regime did it, is what's the dellusion.