Barrie R. Cassileth
Barrie Joyce Rabinowitz Cassileth (née Rabinowitz; April 22, 1938 – February 26, 2022) was an American researcher of complementary and alternative medicine. She published extensively on alternative cancer treatments. Early life. Cassileth was born in Philadelphia on April 22, 1938. Her father, Albert, initially owned a company that made socks, before operating a company that designed and installed custom kitchens together with her mother, Rosalind (Kaizen). Cassileth studied social sciences at Bennington College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1959. She subsequently obtained a Master of Science in psychology from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in  New York City, after taking a hiatus when her husband was called up for military service. She ultimately resumed her studies and was later awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in medical sociology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978. Career. After completing her doctorate, Cassileth remained at the University of Pennsylvania as an assistant professor and taught medical sociology. In that capacity, she contributed to the establishment of one of the first palliative cancer care programs in the US. She then taught at the University of North Carolina, Duke University, and Harvard University. Cassileth edited "", which was published in 1979 . She later wrote "The Alternative Medicine Handbook" (1998) and "The Complete Guide to Complementary Therapies in Cancer Care" (2011). Starting in the 1970s, Cassileth championed integrative medicine entailing a "whole-person" method towards medical care. She underscored how this was not intended to supplant traditional treatments, but add to it instead with practices that could reduce stress, alleviate discomfort, and ameliorate quality of life in general. She also conducted a study with colleagues that was published in "The New England Journal of Medicine" in 1985, which found that a positive or negative attitude maintained by patients suffering from advanced cancer  had little impact on the end result. She noted how "for every anecdote about a cancer patient with a good attitude who lived, I can give you 200 about those who had good attitudes and died", and attributed survival to an individual's biology. Cassileth also expressed misgivings about licensed medical practitioners counselling their patients to pursue alternative treatments to cancer, and maintained that "there are no viable alternatives to mainstream cancer care". She cited the example of Steve Jobs – who initially put off surgery in favor of alternative medicine – and was of the opinion that he "essentially committed suicide