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That’s What I’m Talkin’ ’bout!

The new single-paragraph paradigm for the W^5/2 seems to have worked: there were 13 Waluations for the paragraph submitted in W^5/2 #3, every one of ’em good. Several themes emerged; I’ll discuss them in no particular order.

  • When did you stop beating your wife? The passage charges that the “biomedical model,” by which is apparently meant modern medicine, does not consider anything other than “disturbances in biochemical processes.” “Holistic medicine,” on the other hand, recognizes the Complex Interplay Between Multiple Factors. DVMKurmes, pmoran, and wertys each exposed the ahistoricity of this claim.
  • Back to the Future. Speaking of ahistoricity (is that a word?), two readers, wertys and Falx, noticed a paradox: the proposed “paradigm shift” of “medicine today” always involves the resurrection of discredited, pre-scientific notions of yesterday.
  • Dr. Feelgood. Several readers, including DVMKurmes, Michelle B, rjstan, wertys, Stu (m’man!), Calli Arcale, and overshoot, alluded to the preference of at least some Woo-Seekers for feeling good (“a healing model”) over being good (“the curative model”). I admit that my shorthand description of the point is oversimplified, but there is truth in it nonetheless. The “feelgood” phenomenon is not to be confused with the similarly named
  • Feelings…Very Special Feelings. Alotta people just want, well, their feelings to be validated. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but if it’s at the expense of competent medical care, as rjstan, Stu, and Falx noted, they could be Takin’ Trouble by the Tail. Or at least Losin’ a Lotta Lettuce.
  • It Takes a Worried (wo)Man to Sing a Worried Song. Both rjstan and DBonez called attention to the current societal obsession with “health,” frequently called “wellness,” which is an indispensable part of the “CAM”-scam. As rjstan and pmoran pointed out, many of the obsessed have nothing wrong but a surplus of funds. Why don’t those people just getta life?
  • By Hook and By Crook. Tools honed on Madison Avenue are in the kits of sCAMsters, say DVMKurmes, Michelle B, Stu, and ShawnMilo. That they are.
  • Mastering the Art of Zen Cooking. A lotta “reduction” makes my eyes glaze, so I was pleased that at least one reader, overshoot, cited the passage for its tired misportrayal of the “scientific reductionist view.” One o’these weeks we’ll discuss that at some length.
  • The Well-Hewn Tune of Thomas Kuhn is misrepresented by those we impugn, as asserted by wertys and implied by Joe. Another topic to discuss at more length some time.
  • The Autobiography of Malcolm X…prophecies that…his…brother…Michael X…will…one day…rail…against…so-called…integrated…medicine.

This Week’s Entry:

A shaman is a type of spiritual healer distinguished by the practice of journeying to nonordinary reality to make contact with the world of spirits, to ask their direction in bringing healing back to people and the community. The journey is a controlled trance state that practitioners induce by using repetitive sound (drums, rattles) or movement (dancing) and occasionally by consuming plant substances (e.g., peyote or certain mushrooms). Characteristically experiential and cooperative, shamanic healing is found worldwide. It is fundamental to much traditional European, African, Asian, and Native American Indian folk practice and is rapidly gaining popularity among nonnative urban Americans, in which setting it is sometimes called neo-shamanism.

Happy Waluating!

The Misleading Language and Weekly Waluation of the Weasel Words of Woo series:

  1. Lies, Damned Lies, and ‘Integrative Medicine’
  2. Integrative Medicine: “Patient-Centered Care” is the new Medical Paternalism
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Posted by Kimball Atwood