Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America

Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America

Author: Hans A. Baer

Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 9780299166946

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Examining medical pluralism in the United States from the Revolutionary War period through the end of the twentieth century, Hans Baer brings together in one convenient reference a vast array of information on healing systems as diverse as Christian Science, osteopathy, acupuncture, Santeria, southern Appalachian herbalism, evangelical faith healing, and Navajo healing. In a country where the dominant paradigm of biomedicine (medical schools, research hospitals, clinics staffed by M.D.s and R.N.s) has been long established and supported by laws and regulations, the continuing appeal of other medical systems and subsystems bears careful consideration. Distinctions of class, Baer emphasizes, as well as differences in race, ethnicity, and gender, are fundamental to the diversity of beliefs, techniques, and social organizations represented in the phenomenon of medical pluralism. Baer traces the simultaneous emergence in the nineteenth century of formalized biomedicine and of homeopathy, botanic medicine, hydropathy, Christian Science, osteopathy, and chiropractic. He examines present-day osteopathic medicine as a system parallel to biomedicine with an emphasis on primary care; chiropractic, naturopathy, and acupuncture as professionalized heterodox medical systems; homeopathy, herbalism, bodywork, and lay midwifery in the context of the holistic health movement; Anglo-American religious healing; and folk medical systems, particularly among racial and ethnic minorities. In closing he focuses on the persistence of folk medical systems among working-class Americans and considers the growing interest of biomedical physicians, pharmaceutical and healthcare corporations, and government in the holistic health movement


Book Synopsis Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America by : Hans A. Baer

Download or read book Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America written by Hans A. Baer and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining medical pluralism in the United States from the Revolutionary War period through the end of the twentieth century, Hans Baer brings together in one convenient reference a vast array of information on healing systems as diverse as Christian Science, osteopathy, acupuncture, Santeria, southern Appalachian herbalism, evangelical faith healing, and Navajo healing. In a country where the dominant paradigm of biomedicine (medical schools, research hospitals, clinics staffed by M.D.s and R.N.s) has been long established and supported by laws and regulations, the continuing appeal of other medical systems and subsystems bears careful consideration. Distinctions of class, Baer emphasizes, as well as differences in race, ethnicity, and gender, are fundamental to the diversity of beliefs, techniques, and social organizations represented in the phenomenon of medical pluralism. Baer traces the simultaneous emergence in the nineteenth century of formalized biomedicine and of homeopathy, botanic medicine, hydropathy, Christian Science, osteopathy, and chiropractic. He examines present-day osteopathic medicine as a system parallel to biomedicine with an emphasis on primary care; chiropractic, naturopathy, and acupuncture as professionalized heterodox medical systems; homeopathy, herbalism, bodywork, and lay midwifery in the context of the holistic health movement; Anglo-American religious healing; and folk medical systems, particularly among racial and ethnic minorities. In closing he focuses on the persistence of folk medical systems among working-class Americans and considers the growing interest of biomedical physicians, pharmaceutical and healthcare corporations, and government in the holistic health movement

Toward an Integrative Medicine

Toward an Integrative Medicine

Author: Hans A. Baer

Publisher: Rowman Altamira

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 9780759103023

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Baer's exciting new book chronicles the transformation of the holistic health movement as it increasingly influences the delivery of health care in America. He describes the battle for legitimacy by alternative therapeutic practitioners, and the increasing interest by the biomedical profession in the possibilities of a complementary and integrative medical system. Baer shows ironically, how the holistic movement may ultimately become more limited as it gains acceptance and is integrated into mainstream medicine.


Book Synopsis Toward an Integrative Medicine by : Hans A. Baer

Download or read book Toward an Integrative Medicine written by Hans A. Baer and published by Rowman Altamira. This book was released on 2004 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Baer's exciting new book chronicles the transformation of the holistic health movement as it increasingly influences the delivery of health care in America. He describes the battle for legitimacy by alternative therapeutic practitioners, and the increasing interest by the biomedical profession in the possibilities of a complementary and integrative medical system. Baer shows ironically, how the holistic movement may ultimately become more limited as it gains acceptance and is integrated into mainstream medicine.

Bounding Biomedicine

Bounding Biomedicine

Author: Colleen Derkatch

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2016-04-21

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 022634584X

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During the 1990s, unprecedented numbers of Americans turned to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), an umbrella term encompassing health practices such as chiropractic, energy healing, herbal medicine, homeopathy, meditation, naturopathy, and traditional Chinese medicine. By 1997, nearly half the US population was seeking CAM in one form or another, spending at least $27 billion out-of-pocket annually on related products and services. As CAM rose in popularity over the decade, so did mainstream medicine's interest in understanding whether those practices actually worked, and how. Medical researchers devoted considerable effort to testing CAM interventions in clinical trials, and medical educators scrambled to assist physicians in advising patients about CAM. In Bounding Biomedicine, Colleen Derkatch examines how the rhetorical discourse around the published research on this issue allowed the medical profession to maintain its position of privilege and prestige throughout this process, even as its place at the top of the healthcare hierarchy appeared to be weakening. Her research focuses on the ground-breaking and somewhat controversial CAM-themed issues of The Journal of the American Medical Association and its nine specialized Archives journals from 1998, demonstrating how these texts performed rhetorical boundary work for the medical profession. As Derkatch reveals, the question of how to test healthcare practices that don't fit easily (or at all) within mainstream Western medical frameworks sweeps us into the realm of medical knowledge-making--the research teams, clinical trials, and medical journals that determine which treatments are safe and effective--and also out into the world where doctors meet patients, illnesses find treatment, and values, practices, policies, and priorities intersect. Through Bounding Biomedicine, Derkatch shows exactly how narratives of medicine's entanglements with competing models of healthcare shape not only the historical episodes they narrate but also the very fabric of medical knowledge itself and how the medical profession is made and remade through its own discursive activity.


Book Synopsis Bounding Biomedicine by : Colleen Derkatch

Download or read book Bounding Biomedicine written by Colleen Derkatch and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-04-21 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 1990s, unprecedented numbers of Americans turned to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), an umbrella term encompassing health practices such as chiropractic, energy healing, herbal medicine, homeopathy, meditation, naturopathy, and traditional Chinese medicine. By 1997, nearly half the US population was seeking CAM in one form or another, spending at least $27 billion out-of-pocket annually on related products and services. As CAM rose in popularity over the decade, so did mainstream medicine's interest in understanding whether those practices actually worked, and how. Medical researchers devoted considerable effort to testing CAM interventions in clinical trials, and medical educators scrambled to assist physicians in advising patients about CAM. In Bounding Biomedicine, Colleen Derkatch examines how the rhetorical discourse around the published research on this issue allowed the medical profession to maintain its position of privilege and prestige throughout this process, even as its place at the top of the healthcare hierarchy appeared to be weakening. Her research focuses on the ground-breaking and somewhat controversial CAM-themed issues of The Journal of the American Medical Association and its nine specialized Archives journals from 1998, demonstrating how these texts performed rhetorical boundary work for the medical profession. As Derkatch reveals, the question of how to test healthcare practices that don't fit easily (or at all) within mainstream Western medical frameworks sweeps us into the realm of medical knowledge-making--the research teams, clinical trials, and medical journals that determine which treatments are safe and effective--and also out into the world where doctors meet patients, illnesses find treatment, and values, practices, policies, and priorities intersect. Through Bounding Biomedicine, Derkatch shows exactly how narratives of medicine's entanglements with competing models of healthcare shape not only the historical episodes they narrate but also the very fabric of medical knowledge itself and how the medical profession is made and remade through its own discursive activity.

Complementary and Alternative Approaches to Biomedicine

Complementary and Alternative Approaches to Biomedicine

Author: Edwin L. Cooper

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2004-09-23

Total Pages: 514

ISBN-13: 9780306482885

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This volume is the proceedings of an international symposium that examined the newest parameters in alternative and complementary medicine, thus covering a rapidly growing field of medicine that has strong advocates as well as strong opponents. Topics include both basic research and clinical applications, allowing the text to present high quality, peer reviewed, chapter style contributions that dispel some of the pseudoscience and myth surrounding alternative and complimentary medicine.


Book Synopsis Complementary and Alternative Approaches to Biomedicine by : Edwin L. Cooper

Download or read book Complementary and Alternative Approaches to Biomedicine written by Edwin L. Cooper and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2004-09-23 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is the proceedings of an international symposium that examined the newest parameters in alternative and complementary medicine, thus covering a rapidly growing field of medicine that has strong advocates as well as strong opponents. Topics include both basic research and clinical applications, allowing the text to present high quality, peer reviewed, chapter style contributions that dispel some of the pseudoscience and myth surrounding alternative and complimentary medicine.

The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine

The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine

Author: Anamaria Iosif Ross

Publisher: Berg

Published: 2013-05-09

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 0857853171

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Alternative medicine is not a fashionable new trend but an established cultural strategy, as well as a dynamic feature of mainstream contemporary medicine, in which elements of folk traditions are often blended with western scientific approaches. The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine is a concise yet wide-ranging exploration of non-biomedical healing. The book addresses a broad range of practices including: substance, energy and information flows (e.g. helminthic therapy); spirit, consciousness and trance (e.g. shamanism); body, movement and the senses (e.g. reiki and aromatherapy); as well as classical medical traditions as complements or alternatives to Western biomedicine (e.g. Ayurveda). Exploring the cultural underpinnings of contemporary healing methods, while assessing current ideas, topics and resources for further study, this book will be invaluable to undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology, sociology, psychology, and health related professions such as nursing, physical and occupational therapy, and biomedicine.


Book Synopsis The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine by : Anamaria Iosif Ross

Download or read book The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine written by Anamaria Iosif Ross and published by Berg. This book was released on 2013-05-09 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alternative medicine is not a fashionable new trend but an established cultural strategy, as well as a dynamic feature of mainstream contemporary medicine, in which elements of folk traditions are often blended with western scientific approaches. The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine is a concise yet wide-ranging exploration of non-biomedical healing. The book addresses a broad range of practices including: substance, energy and information flows (e.g. helminthic therapy); spirit, consciousness and trance (e.g. shamanism); body, movement and the senses (e.g. reiki and aromatherapy); as well as classical medical traditions as complements or alternatives to Western biomedicine (e.g. Ayurveda). Exploring the cultural underpinnings of contemporary healing methods, while assessing current ideas, topics and resources for further study, this book will be invaluable to undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology, sociology, psychology, and health related professions such as nursing, physical and occupational therapy, and biomedicine.

Complementary and Alternative Approaches to Biomedicine

Complementary and Alternative Approaches to Biomedicine

Author: Edwin L. Cooper

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-06-29

Total Pages: 476

ISBN-13: 1475748205

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WHAT HAPPENED IN KANAZAWA? THE BIRTH OF eCAM This book contains the proceedings of the International Symposium on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, (CAM) which was convened in Kanazawa Japan, November 8-10, 2002. The participants were mainly from Japan, USA, China, France, England, Germany, Taiwan, and India. The world of western medicine is gradually opening its doors to new ways of ap proaching healing. Since many of these approaches began centuries and even millennia ago in Asia, it was entirely appropriate to open our symposium in Kanazawa, a beautiful, traditional city located on the Sea of Japan. Experts from Asia, Europe and the United States gathered together for true discussions on complementary and alternative medicine and its role developing all over the world. As scientists, we listened to historical perspec tives from India, China and Japan, where CAM is still being practiced as it has been for centuries. It is well to mention at the outset that this book will cover a rapidly growing field that has strong advocates but others who are less than enthusiastic. This should be evident by the presentation of chapters that aim to significantly dispel some of the criticisms of pseudoscience and myth that often surround the discipline. It is our purpose to present high quality peer reviewed chapters.


Book Synopsis Complementary and Alternative Approaches to Biomedicine by : Edwin L. Cooper

Download or read book Complementary and Alternative Approaches to Biomedicine written by Edwin L. Cooper and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WHAT HAPPENED IN KANAZAWA? THE BIRTH OF eCAM This book contains the proceedings of the International Symposium on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, (CAM) which was convened in Kanazawa Japan, November 8-10, 2002. The participants were mainly from Japan, USA, China, France, England, Germany, Taiwan, and India. The world of western medicine is gradually opening its doors to new ways of ap proaching healing. Since many of these approaches began centuries and even millennia ago in Asia, it was entirely appropriate to open our symposium in Kanazawa, a beautiful, traditional city located on the Sea of Japan. Experts from Asia, Europe and the United States gathered together for true discussions on complementary and alternative medicine and its role developing all over the world. As scientists, we listened to historical perspec tives from India, China and Japan, where CAM is still being practiced as it has been for centuries. It is well to mention at the outset that this book will cover a rapidly growing field that has strong advocates but others who are less than enthusiastic. This should be evident by the presentation of chapters that aim to significantly dispel some of the criticisms of pseudoscience and myth that often surround the discipline. It is our purpose to present high quality peer reviewed chapters.

The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine

The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine

Author: Anamaria Iosif Ross

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-05-27

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1000180743

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Alternative medicine is not a fashionable new trend but an established cultural strategy, as well as a dynamic feature of mainstream contemporary medicine, in which elements of folk traditions are often blended with western scientific approaches.The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine is a concise yet wide-ranging exploration of non-biomedical healing. The book addresses a broad range of practices including: substance, energy and information flows (e.g. helminthic therapy); spirit, consciousness and trance (e.g. shamanism); body, movement and the senses (e.g. reiki and aromatherapy); as well as classical medical traditions as complements or alternatives to Western biomedicine (e.g. Ayurveda). Exploring the cultural underpinnings of contemporary healing methods, while assessing current ideas, topics and resources for further study, this book will be invaluable to undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology, sociology, psychology, and health related professions such as nursing, physical and occupational therapy, and biomedicine.


Book Synopsis The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine by : Anamaria Iosif Ross

Download or read book The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine written by Anamaria Iosif Ross and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-27 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alternative medicine is not a fashionable new trend but an established cultural strategy, as well as a dynamic feature of mainstream contemporary medicine, in which elements of folk traditions are often blended with western scientific approaches.The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine is a concise yet wide-ranging exploration of non-biomedical healing. The book addresses a broad range of practices including: substance, energy and information flows (e.g. helminthic therapy); spirit, consciousness and trance (e.g. shamanism); body, movement and the senses (e.g. reiki and aromatherapy); as well as classical medical traditions as complements or alternatives to Western biomedicine (e.g. Ayurveda). Exploring the cultural underpinnings of contemporary healing methods, while assessing current ideas, topics and resources for further study, this book will be invaluable to undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology, sociology, psychology, and health related professions such as nursing, physical and occupational therapy, and biomedicine.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Author: Caragh Brosnan

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-03-26

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 3319739395

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This book examines how complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) – as knowledge, philosophy and practice – is constituted by, and transformed through, broader social developments. Shifting the sociological focus away from CAM as a stable entity that elicits perceptions and experiences, chapters explore the forms that CAM takes in different settings, how global social transformations elicit varieties of CAM, and how CAM philosophies and practices are co-produced in the context of social change. Through engagement with frameworks from Science and Technology Studies (STS), CAM is reconceptualised as a set of practices and knowledge-making processes, and opened up to new forms of analysis. Part 1 of the book explores how and why boundaries within CAM and between CAM and other health practices, are being constructed, challenged and changed. Part 2 asks how CAM as material practice is shaped by politics and regulation in a range of national settings. Part 3 examines how evidence is being produced and used in CAM research and practice. Including studies of CAM in Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, and North and South America, the volume will appeal to postgraduate students, researchers and health practitioners.


Book Synopsis Complementary and Alternative Medicine by : Caragh Brosnan

Download or read book Complementary and Alternative Medicine written by Caragh Brosnan and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-03-26 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines how complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) – as knowledge, philosophy and practice – is constituted by, and transformed through, broader social developments. Shifting the sociological focus away from CAM as a stable entity that elicits perceptions and experiences, chapters explore the forms that CAM takes in different settings, how global social transformations elicit varieties of CAM, and how CAM philosophies and practices are co-produced in the context of social change. Through engagement with frameworks from Science and Technology Studies (STS), CAM is reconceptualised as a set of practices and knowledge-making processes, and opened up to new forms of analysis. Part 1 of the book explores how and why boundaries within CAM and between CAM and other health practices, are being constructed, challenged and changed. Part 2 asks how CAM as material practice is shaped by politics and regulation in a range of national settings. Part 3 examines how evidence is being produced and used in CAM research and practice. Including studies of CAM in Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, and North and South America, the volume will appeal to postgraduate students, researchers and health practitioners.

Healing Traditions

Healing Traditions

Author: Bonnie Blair O'Connor

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2010-08-03

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 0812200535

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The popularity and practice of alternative medicine continues to expand at astonishing rates. In Healing Traditions, Bonnie Blair O'Connor considers the conflicts that arise between the values and assumptions of Western, scientific medicine and those of unconventional health systems. Providing in-depth examples of the importance and benefits of alternative health practices—including the extraordinarily extensive and sophisticated HIV/AIDS alternative therapies movement—O'Connor identifies ways to integrate alternative strategies with orthodox medical treatments in order to ensure the best possible care for patients. In spite of the long-standing prediction that, as science and medicine progressed—and education became more generally available—unconventional systems would die out, they have persisted with undiminished vitality. They have, in fact, experienced a reinvigoration and expansion during the last fifteen to twenty years. In the United States, this renewal is fueled by people representing a wide cross-section of American society, and most of them also use conventional medicine. This eclecticism can result in conflicts between the values and assumptions of Western, scientific medicine and those of unconventional health systems. O'Connor demonstrates the importance of understanding how various belief systems interact and how this interaction affects health care. She argues that through neutral observation and thorough description of health belief systems it is possible to gain an understanding of those systems, to identify likely points of conflict among systems—especially conflicts that may occur in conventional care settings—and to intervene in ways that ensure the best possible care for patients.


Book Synopsis Healing Traditions by : Bonnie Blair O'Connor

Download or read book Healing Traditions written by Bonnie Blair O'Connor and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2010-08-03 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The popularity and practice of alternative medicine continues to expand at astonishing rates. In Healing Traditions, Bonnie Blair O'Connor considers the conflicts that arise between the values and assumptions of Western, scientific medicine and those of unconventional health systems. Providing in-depth examples of the importance and benefits of alternative health practices—including the extraordinarily extensive and sophisticated HIV/AIDS alternative therapies movement—O'Connor identifies ways to integrate alternative strategies with orthodox medical treatments in order to ensure the best possible care for patients. In spite of the long-standing prediction that, as science and medicine progressed—and education became more generally available—unconventional systems would die out, they have persisted with undiminished vitality. They have, in fact, experienced a reinvigoration and expansion during the last fifteen to twenty years. In the United States, this renewal is fueled by people representing a wide cross-section of American society, and most of them also use conventional medicine. This eclecticism can result in conflicts between the values and assumptions of Western, scientific medicine and those of unconventional health systems. O'Connor demonstrates the importance of understanding how various belief systems interact and how this interaction affects health care. She argues that through neutral observation and thorough description of health belief systems it is possible to gain an understanding of those systems, to identify likely points of conflict among systems—especially conflicts that may occur in conventional care settings—and to intervene in ways that ensure the best possible care for patients.

Alternative Medicine?

Alternative Medicine?

Author: Roberta Bivins

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2010-07-22

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0191613827

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Walk into the local health food shop or pick up today's paper and the chances are that you'll see adverts for acupuncture and herbal medicine, hypnotists and homeopaths. Some doctors and scientists mourn the lost lustre of mainstream medicine and complain about a new breed of 'irrational' consumer. But what exactly is 'alternative' medicine? Is the astonishing popularity of alternative and multicultural medicine really such a recent development? And, given the success story of modern biomedical science, why are alternative and traditional treatments now so fashionable? Has the impersonal chill of high-tech medicine driven consumers into the arms of charismatic quacks? Or is it the cost of western medicine that makes its competitors look so attractive? Do patients seek hope, holism, or just the thrill of rebellion? This book seeks answers to all these questions and more. Comparing the medical systems of China, India, and the west - both mainstream and alternative - Roberta Bivins shows how medical expertise has migrated from one culture to another. From acupuncture in Regency England to homeopathy in the 'Wild West', Bivins unearths the roots of today's distinctions between alternative, complementary, and orthodox medicine, and shows how popular interest in medical alternatives - often of exotic origin - is a phenomenon with a long and fascinating pedigree.


Book Synopsis Alternative Medicine? by : Roberta Bivins

Download or read book Alternative Medicine? written by Roberta Bivins and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010-07-22 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Walk into the local health food shop or pick up today's paper and the chances are that you'll see adverts for acupuncture and herbal medicine, hypnotists and homeopaths. Some doctors and scientists mourn the lost lustre of mainstream medicine and complain about a new breed of 'irrational' consumer. But what exactly is 'alternative' medicine? Is the astonishing popularity of alternative and multicultural medicine really such a recent development? And, given the success story of modern biomedical science, why are alternative and traditional treatments now so fashionable? Has the impersonal chill of high-tech medicine driven consumers into the arms of charismatic quacks? Or is it the cost of western medicine that makes its competitors look so attractive? Do patients seek hope, holism, or just the thrill of rebellion? This book seeks answers to all these questions and more. Comparing the medical systems of China, India, and the west - both mainstream and alternative - Roberta Bivins shows how medical expertise has migrated from one culture to another. From acupuncture in Regency England to homeopathy in the 'Wild West', Bivins unearths the roots of today's distinctions between alternative, complementary, and orthodox medicine, and shows how popular interest in medical alternatives - often of exotic origin - is a phenomenon with a long and fascinating pedigree.