23 replies to this topic

[SemiBizz]

Furthermore, this "hubris" of the American Medical Association establishment is nothing new, this has been going on since the 1800s....Here's an article regarding the history of the exclusionary activities of the AMA regarding homeopathy and alternative medicine.



Alternative Medicine and the AMA



Proposition I: Science has been traditionally used by the American medical profession as a wedge(and sometimes a club) to denigrate, exclude, or deny the efficacy of alternative models of healing.It makes little sense to talk about “alternative medicine” in the early nineteenth century.Terms like alternative medicine and complementary medicine are terms of opposition. Medicalforms are only "alternative" and "complementary" to an orthodoxy against which they are defined.That which makes a particular medical form alternative or complementary is the argument of peoplewith the power to define disease for a society that such a form should be marginalized, opposed,subjugated, or relegated to institutional or cultural spheres outside that of the mainstream medicalpractice.For example, Walls and Morley (1976) have written that we can only talk of orthodoxmedicine, and hence alternative medicine, when: 1) there exists an occupational group whose job itis to apply therapeutic procedures to the sick; 2) this group displays a high level of consensus aboutthe causes and treatments of most ailments; and 3) its members are attributed a high degree oflegitimacy by the client group, which regards them as peculiarly competent to treat the sick. In thenineteenth century, there were many groups who claimed legitimacy as institutionalized healers,there was little consensus even among regulars about what caused disease and often how to treat it,and the “client group” used a variety of practitioners. In fact, some of the most prominentphysicians, lawyers, businessmen, and politicians of the 19th century were ardent believers inspiritualism, phrenology, homeopathy and the rest (Wrobel, 1987). Homeopathy was the treatmentof choice for the elite class, which makes sense -- the regulars’ “heroic” medicine consisted ofbleeding and purging, which were as likely to harm the patient as help, while the homeopaths wereadministering highly diluted water solutions, which at least did no harm. The names of those whosupported homeopathy or another of the “irregular” systems reads like a Who's Who of the 19thcentury: P.T. Barnum, Brigham Young, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Henry Ward Beecher,Horace Greely, William Cohen Bryant, James Fenimore Cooper, Charles Dickens, Margaret Fuller,Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Wardsworth Longfellow, Louise MayAlcott, John D. Rockefeller and Washington Irving. Writers such as Walt Whitman, Edgar AllenPoe, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, George Elliot, Hawthorne, and Charlotte Bronte all suffusedtheir writings with spiritualist or with phrenological concepts (Wrobel, 1987)

[maineman]

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest. --Hermann Hesse





If "alternative" medicine, as you, and Cookie, and Muppet, et.al define, allows me to become a narrow-minded, hate-spewing, bigoted, blowhard fanatic as you present yourselves in these mean spirited and immature posts, then please, dear god, pass the donuts, and slather mine with peanut butter and ice cream right now.



Your megalomaniacal and sycophantic ranting and raving surely belie your intent, for if not, then you all are "boinking" nuts.



mm



That best portion of a good man's life, His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.

--William Wordsworth



If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. --The Dalai Lama

[SemiBizz]

I see so now you're out of arguments, so you have reverted to name-calling. Nice. You have way too much time on your hands... I think you should spend it doing something worthwhile and not spend it hassling healthy people who want to share homeopathic ideas. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who could actually use your expertise. Let's not forget the legacy of your AMA. Their solutions have including purging and bleeding patients and Classifying Acupuncturists as heretics... You really need to find an outlet for your unfulfilled need to help people...find it.

[calmcookie]

I only said that I didn't like peanut butter.