placebo, n.All

Just the smell of coffee can have a placebo effect and increase feelings of focus and ambition.

The Placebo is highly addictive.

A Placebo is a simulated or otherwise medically ineffectual treatment for a disease or other medical condition intended to deceive the recipient.

The Placebo is a tricky subject in medicine. It is very difficult for the medical profession to get their teeth around the idea of a phony cure that actually works 30% of the time in psychogenic diseases.

The Placebo must be believed in in order to work. And if it works, it is obviously working in some indirect way, through feedback in the immune system, let us say, or in the willpower of the patient to take a more strenuous exercise in their own therapy.

The Placebo effect still works even when you're aware of the placebo.