The Ideology of Modern Medical Culture

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The Ideology of Modern Medical Culture
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Ancient Greek Medicine

• Allopathy Literally--the treatment of disease by
  producing effects that are different from those
  produced by the disease (cold compresses for
  fever, hallucinogens to fight pain)
• Opposed to Homeopathy Literally the treatment of
  disease by trying to induce an effect similar to
  the disease (sweating out a fever, fighting a
  poison with another poison)
• These terms have taken on different meanings
  today from their original Greek meanings

3
Modern Use of Term Allopathic

• Allopathy today implies a struggle against
  disease or medical approaches that seek, through
  radical interventions, to halt, impede, or modify
  the progress of a disease (eg. Drugs, surgery)
• Allopathy is the main approach used in modern
  scientific or regular medicine

4
Modern Use of Term Homeopathic

• Homeopathy today implies medical approaches other
  than allopathic
• Does not emphasize radical interventions, but
  rather subtle changes in lifestyle, habits that
  adversely affect health, and low-tech home
  treatment

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Two Conceptions of Disease

• Ontological View Diseases are thought of as
  separate entities from us
• Ontological view has dominated allopathic
  medicine
• Ecological View Diseases are thought of as an
  expression of the individual
• Ecological View is more common in Homeopathic
  medicine

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Impact of Allopathic Approach

• Medical practitioners are viewed as fighters
  resisting the invasion of diseases
• Patient is viewed as the battlefieldthis is
  the origin of the term patientone who must
  wait patiently upon the outcome of the struggle
  between the disease and the doctor
• Patient is viewed as having a passive role in the
  conduct of medicine

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Empiricism

• Empiricism is an 17th philosophical movement that
  argued that knowledge should be established by
  the use of our senses
• Proof for empirical knowledge should therefore
  always be able to be demonstrated publicly in a
  repeatable fashion
• Knowledge that does not come from senses (such as
  intuition, personal insight or other subjective
  sources) is to be mistrusted
• Empiricism is a basic part of the scientific
  outlook

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Mechanistic Outlook

• Influential philosopher Rene Descartes argued
  that people are (dualistic) in naturebody and a
  completely distinct soul
• His view encouraged the scientific investigation
  of the body as a mechanism
• Scientific approach is reductionisticthings
  can be fully understood by examining their
  parts
• Knowledge of wholes is unnecessary

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Individualism

• Allopathy Medicine is about fighting a disease
  in a patient
• Ontological View patient is invaded from
  outside
• Mechanistic view Medicine is about fixing the
  bodies of patients
• Focus of modern medicine is on individuals, not
  the social context in which these individuals live

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Scientific Medicine (18th CenturyToday)

1. Medicine is about disease, not the patient
2. Regards the body as a machine
3. The objective physician mistrusts his or her
   own subjective judgments and tries to ignore the
   beliefs of the patient
4. Relies instead on empirical testing
5. Patient is passive bystander to the healing
   process
6. Individual is the focus of medicine, not societies

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Postmans Criticisms of Scientific Medicine

• Technology is not a neutral element in the
  practice of medicine
• Use of technologies creates imperatives (ways
  of thinking and acting) through wide-ranging
  social systems, eg. reliance on machines in
  medicine reinforces our belief in the scientific
  medical approach
• Technology can change the way doctors view the
  practice of medicine

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Leons Examples of Monumental Medical
Contributors

• William Harvey overcame religious taboos about
  dissection and discovered the circulatory system
• Pasteur rejected vital spirits and other
  mystical elements in his theory of infection
• Darwins theory revealed that there is no plan to
  nature, and thus, it is up to us to fix it