Book excerpt: Erroneous Dichotomies Permeate Pharmacocentric Medicine
"In Western societies, one of the dominating paradigms has been that of “man versus nature”, which is commonly represented in history, myth, and art as humanity’s combat with and attempts at dominance over nature, commonly viewed as hostile or at the very least mysterious, therefore unknown, therefore uncontrollable. As such, nature—despite its beauty and life-giving properties—is often represented as monstrous and demonic, as in the sculpture above. We continue to see this “combat” in science and medicine. Especially in Western/pharmacocentric medicine, the body is depicted as chaotic and in need of outside control and “medical management”, and diseases are described as “idiopathic”—from an unknown source. Indeed, Western medicine is full of its own myths, not appreciated as such, which continue to drive thought and action. Wiser approaches to both life and medicine encourage synergy, acceptance, nurturance,and orchestration rather than attempts to outwardly dominate and artificially—and therefore temporarily—control."
Photo and caption by DrV, 2016.
