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Dr. Veith points out that in many of the conditions for which acupuncture is recommended there is a large emotional factor. Acupuncturists may be practicing a brand of psychosomatic medicine in which the patient's self-hypnosis plays an important part. Dr. Tom Po-chin, a China-trained acupuncturist now living (but not practicing) in San Francisco, says succinctly: "There's nothing miraculous about acupuncture. It's pragmatic medicine, based on thousands of years of application." One certainty is that for many patients, acupuncture helps—somehow.
*In reporting on his operation, Reston whimsically attributed the attack to Henry Kissinger. "The first stab of pain went through my groin," the columnist wrote, when Chinese officials disclosed that Kissinger's visit to Peking had taken place while Reston was being kept out of the capital. "In my delirium," he went on, "I could see Mr. Kissinger floating across my bedroom ceiling grinning at me out of the corner of a hooded ricksha."