Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America

Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America PDF Author: Hans A. Baer
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299166946
Category : Alternative medicine
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
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

Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America

Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America PDF Author: Hans A. Baer
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299166946
Category : Alternative medicine
Languages : en
Pages : 238

Get Book

Book Description
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 PDF Author: Hans A. Baer
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 9780759103023
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
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.

Complementary and Alternative Approaches to Biomedicine

Complementary and Alternative Approaches to Biomedicine PDF Author: Edwin L. Cooper
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1475748205
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
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.

Nature Cures

Nature Cures PDF Author: James C. Whorton
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 0195171624
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
The first truly thorough history of alternative medicine in the U.S. covers the subject in its entirety, from reflexology and homeopathy to dream analysis, chiropractic, and acupuncture, discussing the historical evolution of each practice, the philosophy of "nature cures," and the effective use within the context of conventional medical treatment. (Health & Fitness)

Bounding Biomedicine

Bounding Biomedicine PDF Author: Colleen Derkatch
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022634584X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
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.

The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine

The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine PDF Author: Anamaria Iosif Ross
Publisher: Berg
ISBN: 0857853171
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
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.

The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine

The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine PDF Author: Anamaria Iosif Ross
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000180743
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
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 PDF Author: Merrijoy Kelner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134435495
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
The rapid growth of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) demands that the public, the medical world, social scientists, the media, and governments pay attention. People are questioning the limits of what modern medicine can accomplish and seeking additional ways to manage their health. While many are enthusiastically adopting complementary and alternative forms of medicine, others are more sceptical. Physicians' attitudes are in transition, and governments are pondering where this increasingly important phenomenon fits into the health care system. The challenge is to keep pace with the changing ways that people view health and illness, take reposibility for themselves, and incorporate CAM into their health care. This text brings together for the first time a wide range of leading North American and European social scientists to identify who uses CAM, why they use it, and how they find out about it. Presenting research from psychology, sociology, anthropology and public health, they alert us to the current context of CAM use and provide new models and techniques for understanding its future place in health care.

Healing Powers

Healing Powers PDF Author: Fred M. Frohock
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226265858
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
The personal testimony of individuals engaged in healing practices and the opposing voices of orthodox and alternative medicines are the center of Healing Powers. Focusing on medical norms and practices and on competing philosophies of the mind, the body, reality, and rationality across radically different "belief systems", Fred Frohock clarifies the social and legal dilemmas represented by "scientific medicine" and "alternative care." "Frohock goes beyond the often irreconcilable differences between scientific biomedicine and alternative care by clarifying the social and legal dilemmas they present. . . . A noteworthy contribution forcing us to rethink what medical care is all about."—Jeffrey Michael Clare, Journal of the American Medical Association "The book does more and better than simply provide a social-scientific proposal. It also gives not only a hearing but a voice to those who follow alternative therapies. . . . Frohock's accounts of their stories—along with the stories of the medical professionals—are eloquent and fascinating."—Allen Verhey, Medical Humanities Review "Contains a storehouse of valuable information about the historical, philosophical, and psychological bases of alternative approaches to healing."—Marshall B. Kapp, New England Journal of Medicine "Frohock introduces us to the scientific naturopaths and to physicians who believe in the mind's power to heal, to charismatics who believe in but cannot explain their powers, to those who test God and those who merely accept. He writes so well that I felt I had met these people."—Arthur W. Frank, Christian Century

Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Complementary and Alternative Medicine PDF Author: Caragh Brosnan
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319739395
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
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.