---
aliases:
- Henry K. Beecher
category: "Medicine & Psychology"
tags:
  - Person
summary: "Beecher's work contributed to the understanding of how perception of an event or a situation - real or imagined, rational or irrational - can cause consequential actions to occur."
born: 1904-02-04
died: 1976-07-25
location: "Peck, Kansas"
---

Henry K. Beecher (1904–1976) was a controversial anesthesiologist who, for the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] in the 1950s, studied the [[Placebo Effect]]. The placebo effect is a remarkable phenomenon whereby a harmless pill or simulated treatment produces real-world physiological effects in humans[^1].

Beecher's work contributed to the understanding of how perception of an event or a situation - real or imagined, rational or irrational - can cause consequential actions to occur. This concept is also related to the [[Thomas Theorem]], which states that "if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences"[^1].

### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.