Do You Really Have to Believe?

Abstract

When an improbable team of losers, the 1969 New York Mets, won the World Series, they were inspired by a relief pitcher who would scream, “You gotta believe!” Perhaps Tug McGraw (who also was famous for saying, “I have no trouble with the twelve inches between my elbow and my palm. It's the seven inches between my ears that's bent”) knew something about the value of this mantra, a value that we could not discern because of his quirkiness. He was implying that belief shaped reality. Belief does not guarantee success, however, so we might ask whether the eccentric McGraw's message is really true. When a person is imprisoned in a home by extreme agoraphobia, we have no trouble seeing that mental disorder as the cause of disability. But when a lack of faith in physical capabilities, often as a result of justifiable fear, limits a person's activities, should we view this as a physical limitation or a problem due to a belief? If physical therapy interventions are to be effective, we need to discern how the effects of physical impairments might be different from psychological factors. Having a physical skill matters little if you are too uncomfortable or fearful to use it. In this issue, Miller and colleagues (pages 856–865) provide us with an intriguing report that deals with the issue of …