CHINESE MEDICINE'S PLACE
(Posted 2011-03-11 18:17:28 by ArchPaladin)

I came across these two [
http://www.classicalchinesemedicine.org/2009/04/chinese-medicine-in-crisis-1/
] articles [
http://www.classicalchinesemedicine.org/2009/04/on-the-relationship-between-medicine-and-philosophy/
] [both classicalchinesemedicine.org] today.  They are quite a long read,
but good if you have nothing better to do and would like to ruminate for a
while.  Notably though, I don't know how well they will come across to
someone not versed in oriental medicine.

There is a split amongst practitioners of oriental medicine about the
medicine's future - particularly in the United States.  Some practitioners
run to embrace the Western medical model: they try to get acupuncture &
herbal therapy covered by insurance, they want equal standing with MDs,
they want the scientific recognition, and they want the pay and acclaim
that comes with those developments.  On the other side you have the
practitioners that idealize the barefoot doctor: they try and keep their
treatments as inexpensive as possible, they will go into underserved
populations that have no money, and they tend to shun higher medical
recognition or anything else surrounding the healthcare industry.  In truth
I suppose there is also the third group that works in spas and sees
acupuncture as a luxury service, and the fourth group that works in their
private practice and tries to avoid all these disputes.  Notably, I think
the last two groups tend not to be involved in the politics and direction
of the field as much, so they have little bearing in this discussion.

It is hard to weigh whether or not one direction for the field is
"correct", and I don't think there is a single answer to that question. 
But the articles I link to provide good insight here - the battle isn't so
much over money (although that's a large component) or recognition (another
component), or even anything else like that.  The battle is really over
which mindset to approach the medicine from.  Do we take the approach that
Western science should define Chinese medicine's role in society even if
science stays out of the day-to-day practice?  Or do we take the approach
that by using the classics (or other philosophical works) along with
internal reflection is the best way to understand how to progress?  Or (as
is also often thought) do we shun the idea of higher learning and let a
large dose of raw clinical experience determine how and where we practice?

My personal opinion is that there is only a small number of possible
outcomes to this situation.  Either the field will have structure imposed
on it from an outside force (disappointing maybe everybody), or one faction
will play dirty to outmaneuver the other (causing a huge backlash and
probably destroying large portions of the field), or we will reach some
consensus over outside factors (probably in response to the first option). 
No matter how you cut it though, it looks to be a long and bloody battle.

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