Gualala Arts Lecture Series presents:
Quackery, Placebos and Elixirs:
A Brief History of Medical Charlatanism

with David Goheen

Monday, December 10, 2007, 7:00 p.m.
$5 donation requested

Even before he entered medical school, Dr. Goheen had an abiding interest in fraudulent cures, treatments, and medications and has gathered extensive information on the subject, especially in the US and in France.

He finds it ironic that the French, who like to think of themselves as models of rationalism, are particularly prone to belief in nostrums and cure-alls and consume 2 1/2 times more pills per capita than do Americans, Britons, and Germans. He does not spare the pharmaceutical companies and their hard-sell advertising techniques that can backfire, as in the Vioxx debacle.

Want to know how to cure cancer with a candle or arthritis with a copper bracelet? David will cover it. This illustrated lecture is an amusing and head-shaking look at the gullibility of the public and the creativity of unscrupulous practitioners who thrive on it.

A little more about David...

David Goheen is a retired orthopedic surgeon who has been a Sea Ranch resident for eight years. He received his PhD in applied mathematics at UC Berkeley in 1968 and then chose medicine for a career, earning his MD at UC San Francisco in 1973. He practiced in Graz, Austria and Edinburgh, Scotland prior to becoming Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at UCSF and Medical Staff Officer at John Muir Medical Center in Contra Costa County. With his wife, Carrie, and his Portuguese Water Dog, Sophie, David spends several months each year at their second home in Aubusson, France.

Located at 46501 Old State Highway in Gualala, California, the Arts Center is open weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and weekends from noon to 4:00 p.m. Please call (707) 884-1138 for more information.