Homeopathy is nonsense? Groups react to Pasternak’s book – 07/31/2023 – Science

Several medical entities published notes in defense of homeopathy and repudiation of statements made by microbiologist Natalia Pasternak in interviews for the promotion of her new book.

Written in partnership with journalist Carlos Orsi, “What nonsense! Pseudosciences and Other Absurdities that Don’t Deserve to Be Taken Seriously” (ed. Contexto) classifies popular practices in Brazil as non-scientific, such as homeopathy, astrology, acupuncture and psychoanalysis.

The Brazilian Homeopathic Medical Association said it values ​​”open and respectful criticism”, but not “interventions devoid of technical basis, without the necessary knowledge of the facts”.

“Real medical science repels disinformation, disguised as truth by pseudo-wise men who pronounce nonsense and prejudiced opinions, without ever having attended to a patient or produced studies of medical and social impact”, states the entity.

According to the association, “scientific evidence on homeopathy and the effects of high homeopathic dilutions, including on plants, accumulates and is available to those who understand science”.

The Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) reaffirmed that homeopathy is a medical specialty and that there are no discussions to review this status.

Days before, the first vice-president of the CFM, Jeancarlo Cavalcante, had told the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo that the recognition of the specialty could be revised.

Regional medical councils also came to the defense of homeopathy.

Psychoanalysts have also written articles in defense of psychoanalysis. A Sheet spoke with Ana Cláudia Zuanella, director of Febrapsi (Brazilian Federation of Psychoanalysis).

According to her, psychoanalysis is indeed a science. “Not a hard science, which implies refutations through replicability, but a science that encompasses a body of knowledge solidly established through clinical research and endless theoretical debates”.

Zuanella recalls that psychoanalysis is about to complete 150 years and says that, in this period, “it has incessantly shown its effectiveness, not inside the laboratories, but inside the subject”.