Digest Number 1658

[Guest guest]

Bob, finally we have some answers to what this hub-bub is about and I

thank you for stating them. If Ted Katpchuk has, as you have said,

misrepresented a doctorate then that's a shame. I don't know.

 

> So, there's the question everyone dosen't want asked: Is Ted

> Kaptchuk's

> education in Macao fair justification for presenting himself as he has?

 

I'm fine with asking it, I wish it was done 2 weeks ago.

> is Ted Kaptchuk the person

> you most want to be representing the field on television, advising NIH

> committees, and directing research that could be critical to the

> field's

> future?

 

Actually, these are two or three questions. I'm sure every field has

it's spokespersons and their detractors who are just that because they

can distill the " big picture " . Andrew Weil certainly might fit that.

One reason he is the " spokesperson " is that he wrote a book that is

well written and truth be told accessible to the public. Again, and I'm

not being rhetorical when I ask how you would respond to my patient

today, " What book can you suggest for my doctor who wants to know about

. " ? I have Acupuncture: Visible Holism by Bai Xinghua

MD on my desk but it doesn't exactly spring to mind. Maybe it should.

I've gone through the Barnes and Nobles and can't find a substitute,

Heaven and Earth being too problematic. Terrains and Pathologies? I

don't even understand it. ;-)

 

>

> In general these early teachers [Katpchuk, Bensky, O'Connor]

> presented

> TCM

> as a homogenous system, despite its hybridality in the PRC.

 

Having studied with a number of China trained doctors I would say they

present even less a hybrid view than any American practitioners. I

don't think this is a particular fault of these authors but then again

I haven't read this paper. Look and cringe, if you want, at this week's

history of in Acupuncture Today. (Don't get me

started...)

 

> This

> appearance of homogeneity contributed to American consumers

> perception

> of TCM as a clear-cut alternative to biomedicine. (Barnes, Linda,

> " The

> Acupuncture Wars: The Professionalizizing of Acupuncture - A View

> from

> Massachusetts, " Medical Anthropology, 22:261, 2003)

 

Again I haven't read this paper but this one sentence baffles me.

Certainly for the patient yesterday with congestive heart failure on

double dosage of Lasiks, I was, humbly, her clear-cut alternative to

biomedicine. (How many times have I explained to patients that " yes,

treats this but in China you would be in a hospital

while we did it. " ) And today, the woman with abdomen pain, nausea,

multiple tests with no diagnosis and an appointment in a week for

Flagil and a colonoscopy, her alternative. And all my patient on

anti-depressants.

 

 

>

> Doug, Wainwright, Jim, et. al.,

>

> For answering the challenge as to how we are going to present our field

> based on the view of its nature and history we have today, the " Web "

> is an

> ideal case study. Not only can it be compared to its own sources, the

> marketing of the text and its author offer significant insights into

> what

> Western populations want from CM and how they wish it to be. Popular

> books and authors reflect demand, by examining them, we understand what

> people desire and can more effectively develop a better

> self-description of

> what we do.

>

> Bob

 

I vote that Ken does this. ;-)

doug