A Dialogue between Naturopathy and Critical Medical Anthropology

Greg Connolly

A Dialogue between Naturopathy and Critical Medical Anthropology

2012, Medical Anthropology Quarterly

......By the early 1980s, it was apparent that attempts to regenerate the progress made by Lust, Lindlahr and Carroll would require the creation of a unified professional organization and all which that entailed: more schools, accreditation for schools, national standards in education and licensure, clinical research, increased federal and state legislation, and the articulation of a coherent definition of the profession for legislative purposes, as well as for its own internal development. These accomplishments would be necessary to be able to demonstrate the uniqueness and validity of the profession, guide its educational process, and justify its status as a separate and distinct medical profession.1,2,3,9 In 1986, the newly formed (1985) American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP) began this task of developing a unified professional organization under the leadership of James Sensenig, ND (president) and Cathy Rogers, ND (vice president). Four tasks were developed and committees with specific chairs were delegated: (1) Accreditation of Naturopathic schools through governmental accreditation bodies (Joseph Pizzorno, ND), (2) Standard independent national licensure examination (Ed Smith, ND), (3) A peer-reviewed scientific journal (Peter D’ Adamo, ND). The fourth was the Select Committee on the Definition of Naturopathic Medicine, appointed to develop a new unifying definition of naturopathic medicine, co-chaired by Pamela Snider, ND and Jared Zeff, ND with committee members Bruce Milliman, ND, Kevin Wilson, ND, William Wulsin, ND, and Peter Glidden, ND. The Select Committee on the Definition of Naturopathic Medicine succeeded in its 3-year effort, culminating in the unanimous adoption by AANP’s House of Delegates (HOD) of a comprehensive, consensus definition of naturopathic medicine in 1989 at the annual AANP convention held at Rippling River, OR.1,2,3,14,15,16 From 1987-1989 The Select Committee led the US profession in an iterative, progressive process of inclusive, profession wide input, review, classification of agreements and disagreements, negotiation, revision, publication of serial drafts and repeated review. The first point of unanimous consensus was to define the profession by its principles, not by its modalities. The Committee sought a defining statement which represented the profession’s highest water mark, the best of its common thinking and aspirations vs. a mediocre and less controversial statement. Conflicts were acknowledged, publicized in open meetings and elsewhere, then negotiated. Superlative common language was sought as opposed to settling on low common denominators in language. Robust arguments and passionate discussions were encouraged rather than suppressed; all with the aim of agreement and codifying the best possible statement, which was achieved. Group meetings were held at conventions, schools and elsewhere; thousands of written inputs and telephone calls were invited, received and organized, shaping the evolving drafts and interim reports. 16,17,18,19 Naturopathy’s historical principles and scope of practice were researched; there was no record of a national unifying definition within a governing body, formally representing the profession through a stakeholder vote. Lusts journals including the Naturopath and Herald of Health and other individual writings provided fertile contributions for discussion. Canadian engagement was welcome, robust and influential.16-19

hygiene. Th e universal obligation to acquire the basics of health maintenance and thereby build up resistance to disease and premature decay was not questioned by physicians. Indeed, they were the source of a constantly fl owing and broadening stream of knowledge about the body, translated into popular terms, which the general public was intended to take to heart. 5 When it came to the actual treatment of illness, however, self-help movements, unregulated therapists, popular medical traditions, self-acquired knowledge, and alternative medicine all equally provoked opposition and controversy. Self-Help, Naturopathy, and an Inquiry into the History of Nursing Practice From the mid-nineteenth century onward, alternative medicine in the German Empire and in the Swiss Confederation played a dynamic role in the organization and institutionalization of medical self-help. 6 Founder fi gures and their medical concepts, associations and alliances of devotees, spas off ering cold water cures and other such treatments, and above all, mass-produced booklets and journals all disseminated their lore of natural healing, graphically affi rming that their conception of a medical alternative, entailing self-help and the services of lay therapists and unorthodox physicians, was a resource as important as, or even superior to, orthodox medical science, including the services of a doctor. Self-help was held to be indispensable-certainly in cases of emergency, when a physician was too far away or when his prescription could not help. Many eff orts were made to inform the public about the benefi ts of nature cures, homoeopathy, and other healing methods, as well as to warn it about critical aspects of physicians' treatments, such as surgery, vaccinations, or the administration of drugs. Th is barrage of information included pointed comment on the negative aspects of competing unconventional methods. On the eve of World War I, behind the biggest organization of medical alternatives stood naturopathy. Th e Deutsche Bund der Vereine für naturgemäße Lebens-und Heilweise counted almost 150,000 members and 890 local associations. 7 A similar organization in Switzerland, going by the name of the Schweizerischer Verband für naturgemäße Lebens-und Heilweise, boasted 6,000 members and over forty member-associations. Other bigger and smaller alliances, organizations, and associations promoted lay homoeopathy, Kneipp's methods, or biochemistry. 8 Although physicians were often the charismatic founders of treatments and built careers as well-known directors of a Kurhaus, a sanatorium or a spa, 9 alternative medicine as such was relegated to the margins of

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