Digest Number 1142

[Guest guest]

Phil,

 

> " "

> The Elite Few v the Mediocre Masses

>

> Hi All,

>

> The question of the Elite Few v the Mediocre

> Masses has arisen on

> several Lists (Acup, Herbs, and other aspects

> of Holistic Med). IMO

> is is arrogant for one to hold that one

> possesses all [medical] truth. It

> is equally arrogant for one GROUP to have that

> view, whether that

> group be expert surgeons, or expert

> nutritionists, or expert TCM

> practitioners.

 

As you bring up the issue of arrogance

and it's relationship with the study

and practice of medicine, I want to

add my 2 cents worth. I think that

if we're going to be concered about

arrogance we have to include the

arrogance of Western writers and

educators who profess to teach subtle

and complex ideas about Chinese

medicine with little or no regard

for the language and literature of

the subject. In my estimation, it

is this approach that has weakened

the foundations of the subject and

therefore of the profession which

is based upon it in the West for

too long now.

 

I wholeheartedly to the

call, in other threads on this list

recently, that we scrutinize the

literature that comes out of the PRC

very closely. I think the first step

in such scrutiny is to be able to

understand it.

 

There is more to understanding than

simply dismissing that which doesn't

measure up to one's expectations.

And the first step towards understanding

if often the admission of ignorance.

 

I think that we in the West have

tended to get carried away with

our own arrogance about this subject,

refusing to admit valuable sources

of knowledge into the scope of our

investigations into the nature,

characteristics and the workability

of traditional Chinese medicine.

>

> The older I get, the more I realise how

> inadequate is my real

> knowledge. I have been studying and using

> holistic concepts [esp

> acup] for >28 years and each time I read a new

> book or attend a

> seminar I learn new ways of looking at the

> age-old problems of

> illhealth and its therapy.

 

Amen.

 

For me it's been over thirty years,

and in the last several I have come

to understand that I know very little

about the subject. I remember my

first tai4 ji2 teacher back in 1970

saying that if you studied yin1 and

yang2 long enough eventually you'd

know nothing at all.

 

>

> For me, there is only ONE medicine - " the

> medicine that works "

> with reasonable predictability in most cases.

 

It seems to me that medicine also has

a dimension that makes it comparable to

fashion. People tend to seek out that

medicine which is considered to be

in fashion at any given moment in

any given place. What makes medicine

fashionable is not always its workability.

 

And I think that people's rights to

choose their medicine based on any

criteria they wish to use should be

vigilantly protected.

 

{...}

>

> May I suggest that we try to tolerate widely

> diverging views on how

> to best help our patients, even if those views

> clash with our own

> strongly held opinions.

 

I agree on the importance of tolerance,

and want to add that in education and

training, teachers can only develop

competence and excellence by being

intolerant of students' ignorance.

 

I don't mean being tolerant of the

students themselves, of course. I

mean refusing to tolerate students

being educated in ignorance of the

basic materials of the subject.

 

As a writer, I openly admit to

that arrogance which presumes that

others will find what I have to

say of interest and value. But I

agree with you that we need to

be a little less tolerant of

arrogance in ourselves and in

one another.

 

And it is extremely arrogant

for non-Chinese to presume that

they can understand the subject

with little if any grasp of its

language and literature.

 

>

> Peace to all of you.

 

And to you.

 

Ken

[Guest guest]

Ken -

 

I concur with you on this. I have had western practitioners purport to have the skills to teach Asian languages only

to find out the skills were insufficient. This was true for other courses I hired people to teach early in my career

as an adminstrator - one learns quick in the trenches.

I'm certain you rely on your wife for much of the translational process you are involved with. I also have a team of practitioners

that I work with. Some are senior doctors, many are Ph.D.s, and

some are from Taiwan so we can get access to older character

based types of information.

 

I do enjoy the study of the characters and the language. However, team discussion of various topics seems to create less confusion

than going it alone with my dictionary.

 

By the way, aren't you including "Western writers and

educators who profess to teach subtle

and complex ideas about Chinese

medicine with little or no regard

for the language and literature of

the subject." in your journal? I haven't seen it, but it was mentioned to me in passing and I was curious given the

forcefulness of your commentary.

 

The arrogance seems to be more race and gender based than knowledge based.

 

Will

 

As you bring up the issue of arrogance

and it's relationship with the study

and practice of medicine, I want to

add my 2 cents worth. I think that

if we're going to be concered about

arrogance we have to include the

arrogance of Western writers and

educators who profess to teach subtle

and complex ideas about Chinese

medicine with little or no regard

for the language and literature of

the subject. In my estimation, it

is this approach that has weakened

the foundations of the subject and

therefore of the profession which

is based upon it in the West for

too long now.