D.H.
Lawrence wrote in his poem “Heal-
ing,” “I am not a mechanism, an
assembly of various sections. And it is not because
the mechanism is working wrongly, that I am ill. I
am ill because of wounds to the soul, to the deep
emotional self” (The Complete Poems of D. H.
Lawrence.New York: Penguin, 1914–1977).
This is testimony to what a good portion of the
population now refers to as “the mind-body con-
nection.” Although Hippocrates, considered to be
the “father of medicine,” said, “I would rather
know what kind of person has a disease than
what kind of disease a person has,” the medical
community had long pooh-poohed anything but
traditional Western practices that have been tradi-
tionally and largely based on prescription drugs,
surgery, chemotherapy, and other treatments
developed from scientific research.
Traditional medicine has accomplished and
continues to accomplish phenomenal strides in
all aspects of medicine. However, many patients
who found no relief from traditional treatment
began to seek help elsewhere—that is, in modal-
ities that claimed no hard and fast scientific
proof, but only a huge sweep of anecdotal suc-
cess. After being generally shunned as quacks for
decades, chiropractic physicians suddenly came
into their own because people reported that after
the hands-on treatment, their symptoms sub-
sided or disappeared. Word spread, and now vis-
its to a chiropractor are covered by most leading
health insurance companies. In other words, chi-
ropractic entered and took root in the main-
stream, as have acupuncture, acupressure, and
other Asian methods of healing, along with mas-
sage, hydrotherapy, therapeutic touch, nutri-
tional therapy, hypnosis, osteopathy, relaxation
techniques, guided imagery and visualization,
aromatherapy, homeopathy, meditation, yoga,
and hundreds of other approaches to combating
disease and promoting well-being. The public
calls these “alternative medicines,” resonating
with the part of the Constitution of the World
Health Organization (WHO) that says, “Health is
a state of complete physical, mental and social
well-being, and not merely the absence of disease
or infirmity.”
In Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, a widely
respected reference, alternative medicine is defined
as “approaches to medical diagnosis and therapy
that have not been developed by use of generally
accepted methods of validating their effectiveness.
Included are a great number of ‘systems,’ including
manipulative medicine, ayurveda, shiatsu, hypno-
sis, biofeedback, acupuncture, acupressure, holistic
medicine, macrobiotics, rolfing, Christian Science,
reflexotherapy, homeopathy, aroma therapy, and
faith healing. This is not to say that, were these
methods subjected to scientific study, all of them
would be found to be ineffective.” According to the
American Cancer Society website on complemen-
tary and alternative therapies, June 18, 2002, alter-
native refers to “treatments promoted as cancer
‘cures’ but still unproven because they haven’t
been scientifically tested or because tests show
they’re ineffective or harmful,” and complementary
to “treatments used to support other evidence-
based therapies. Instead of curing cancer, comple-xvii