Alternative Medicine

The term alternative medicine designates a wide range of healing practices that are in some sense opposed to—or excluded by—mainstream modern Western medicine. The proliferation of such practices in contemporary Western societies exemplifies the way in which consumer choice relates to people's entire “lifestyles”—such that even the selection of health care expresses the logic of social distinction. The epithet alternative must be treated cautiously, however. Although it is meant to connote something that is an equally acceptable alternative to that in general use or sanctioned by the establishment, the near-synonym complementary medicine is often regarded as preferable. This nomenclature radically diminishes the implication that different healing practices are necessarily strict alternatives, suggesting a less oppositional stance vis-à-vis the medical orthodoxy. The catch-all term complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is increasingly common and includes such varied practices as acupuncture, aromatherapy, Ayurveda, chiropractic, crystal healing, herbalism, homeopathy, naturopathy, osteopathy, radionics, reflexology, Reiki, spiritual healing, and traditional Chinese medicine. Though the status of such practices remains, to varying degrees, contested by much of the scientific medical establishment, the designation CAM implies subservience to a hegemonic orthodoxy, connotes a misleading sense of unity, and fails to acknowledge that the remit of the practices it includes often extends beyond the narrow confines of medicine.

It is notable that what Western society designates as “alternative” or “complementary” medicine remains, for much of the world, the predominant form of health care. Indeed, many forms of CAM have their basis in traditional forms of treatment—as do many aspects of orthodox medicine. The growth in CAM in the West in the last few decades of the twentieth century—after a period when it had been all but eclipsed by modern medicine—is the result of numerous factors, but the kind of “reanimation” of tradition that it expresses is characteristic of the recognition that modernity, despite presenting itself as the solution to society's ills, may be part of the problem, which Ulrich Beck, Antony Giddens, and Scott Lash (1994) frame in terms of “reflexive modernity.”

Modern medicine, by seeking to impose a single rational, expert-based model of health care, may indeed be generating ambivalence to that model, resulting in a resurgence of the systems of belief, knowledge, and practice that it sought to suppress. For example, despite the advances of modern medicine, there are concerns that its intrusive methods introduce new problems alongside the solutions it offers. Famously, Ivan Illich (1976) spoke of iatrogenesis (referring to adverse effects induced by established medical interventions) not simply in clinical terms but as a systemic, sociocultural phenomenon. Though reflexive modernity may call forth further modernization to address modernity's self-generated problems, it may equally provoke an opposite reaction, in terms of alternatives that self-consciously invoke “tradition.”

The growth in CAM in part stems from growing acceptance of values that are opposed to the impersonal nature of scientific medicine, which reserves an entirely passive role for patients who must trust in the authority of the medical expert and adhere to prescribed treatment regimes. The rising popularity of CAM expresses a desire for more “holistic” healing. As Mary Douglas suggests, preferences for particular types of health care, like all consumer preferences, express deep-rooted sets of beliefs and understandings of the world, which typically distance consumers from the kind of person they would not wish to be. Preference for holistic treatments not only reflects dissatisfaction with orthodox medicine; it also expresses a positioning of oneself against others, such as unthinking individuals who have a blind faith in science or who fail to see that connections between big business (the pharmaceutical industry) and medical science may distort medical endeavor or who have repressed more spiritual values.

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