Classifying Healers
• Popular
• Folk
• Professional
Popular Sector
• Informal, Nonspecialist
• Early identification
& definition illness
• Family, Friend, &
Community based
• Self & home-based
treatment
• Colloquial Advice
• Unpaid
Folk Sector: A.K.A ‘Traditional Medicine’
• Semi-specialized, limited
focus
• Community based
• Apprentice, Reveled or
Experiential Education
• Paid or Gifted
• Holistic treatment
• Shared worldview
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Herbalists
Curanderos
Faith Healers
Voodun Mambos
Bone Setters
Injectionists
Spiritualists
Midewewin
Shaman
Faito’o, Fafo
Folk Healers
• Generally know patient,
family & community
• Permit community
members to assist
• Relaxed, familiar setting
• Explain the *why* of
illness
• Dualistic explanation
systems:
– spirit/social world +
individual body
Professional Healers
• Graduates of formalized program
• State sanctioned
• Standardized & Specialized Knowledge
System
• Claims to authority backed by ‘science’
• Offers treatment for ALL types illness
Professional Sector
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Ayurvedic
Chiropractic
Homeopathy
MD’s (Physicians)
Naturopathy
Osteopathy
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Professional Traditional Healers
Professionals
• Physicians, Doctors of
Medicine,
A.K.A:
– Allopathic medicine
– Cosmopolitan
medicine,
– Western medicine,
– Scientific medicine,
– Biomedicine
• Allopathic:
– Treat by contradicting
symptom
• Cosmopolitan:
– Epistemology absorbs all
successful & popular Tx.
• Western:
– Traces roots to Greek
Hippocratic School & Galen
• Scientific:
– All knowledge & treatment
subject to principles of
Popperian investigation
(hypothesis driven,
replicable results).
Professionals: Chiropractic
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Health = healthy nervous system
Founded by David Palmer (USA)
Links to “magnetic therapy”
Treat with spinal adjustment (alleviation of
‘subluxations’)
– Cosmopolitan:
Absorbs therapy & theory from meridian & homeopathic
systems.
– Western:
Roots in USA
– Scientific (semi):
• Do conduct research & recognize biomedical research.
Professionals: Homeopaths
Like cures like” (Hippocrates)
– Stimulation of the body’s •
natural defenses by reproducing the symptoms
of disease
– “Law of infinitesimals”:
potency can be
improved with dilution.
– De-emphasize standard
diagnostic symptoms,
emphasize
individualized Tx &
‘cookbook’ approach.
History:
– Founded in 18th
century by Samuel
Hahnemann
– Widely practiced
alongside allopathy in
USA, until Flexner
Report
– Post Flexner, accepted
women & minority
students
Professionals: Naturopaths
• Philosophy
– Health is more than being disease free
– Comprehensive, permanent behavior change is key to health
– Physician as role model/guide to behavior change
• History
• Founded by Benedict Lust, early 20th century
• J. H. Kellogg’s “Wellville” is most famous naturopathic experiment
– Places/Politics
• Until WWII, widely practiced alongside allopathy
• Resurgence in 1960s, Bastyr University founded
• NIH designates Bastyr as the center for HIV/AIDS alternative therapy
research
• Today
– NDs licensed to practice in 11 states (limited privileges)
– 40%-69% of Americans seek care by NDs
– 1996, first state-funded clinic founded, Kent, WA
Professionals: Ayurveda
• Philosophy
– Ayurveda = Life science in Sanskrit
– Health = balance in doshas(elements) within tissues (dhatus) by
the proper elimination of waste products (malas).
– Rejects objectivism
– Therapies include herbal remedies, yoga
• History
– Ancient Indian medical system
– Mid-20th century interest in the west, Deepak Chopra (MD with
ayurvedic philosophy)
• Today
– No formal education or licensing in the US today, many in India
– 10 clinics exist in NA, one hospital based
Alternative Medicines:
Aromatherapy & Herbalism
• Aromatherapy
– Odorus parts of plants applied via a number of delivery systems
to affect phsyiological processes (similarity to pharmacology)
– Antecedents in history, but really a 20th century phenomenon in
the west
– Often incorporated into massage, herbalism, other alternative
therapies, but no formal discipline
• Herbalism
– Treatment through plant-derived drugs only
– “Law of Signatures” applies cross culturally
– Widely practiced until WWII, currently practice is unregulated,
but remedies are subject to FDA approval
Despite alternatives, Allopathy Remains the dominant model
• Multiple models coexisted in the US up to
the end of the 19th century
• By WWII, allopathy is the dominant model
• Key Historical/Political/Economic events:
– Founding of AMA and attacks on “quackery”
– 1910 Flexner Report
– 1935, Gov’t. definition of Doctor = MD
(amended in 1938) = state protected title.
Professionals in general:
• Modern practice
– MDs, Naturopaths and chiropractors are
primary prescribers.
– Regulated by the state (i.e. Food & Drug Act),
even when self-administered
– Biomedicine assumes a standardized
diagnostic & treatment regime;
– Homeopathy & Naturopathy offer a more
individualized diagnostic & treatment system
(than biomedicine).
• Professionalized Traditional medicines: for a
later class.
• Please stay caught up in the readings.
• Sorry I could not be there – I am thinking of you
all though!