Metaphysics and Medicine: How May the Approaches of Western and Eastern Philosophies be Compared and Evaluated?

[JackDaydream]

Within Western society, most approaches to health, disease and wellbeing come from a perspective of the body based on causality in Western science. If a person is feeling ill the point of contact is going to see a doctor, who may perform a medical examination and carry out tests. To a large extent, this is based on a physicalist model of causation in understanding the working of the human body, even though there is some attention paid to the psychosomatic basis of illness.

In Eastern philosophy there is a different approach to the body, including the idea of a 'subtle body', which is interconnected to the nervous system. This is mapped on a model which often is known in terms of the chakras in Indian thought and the meridian points in Chinese philosophy. These centres, which are seen as energy points are often seen as important in health and wellbeing and may be interconnected with the experience of emotional and mental states.

In the West , the ideas of the East have been embraced in the movement of holistic medicine. However, I would argue that it may be problematic if someone goes down the route of such understanding of illness. The idea of complementary medicine as opposed to alternative medicine is about incorporating the physical and other aspects of understanding illness and health.

Fritjof Capra, a physicist, known for the 'Tao of Physics', 'The Turning Point', as well as a number of other writings has looked at the way in which the Cartesian-Newtonian paradigm has led to a rather restrictive model of reality, including the medical model.

In this particular thread , I am thinking of the medical model and its limitations. I am not suggesting that the physical body and ailments can be ignored. Western medicine offers so much for understanding illness and disease. So many forms of illness can be averted and many owe their lives to the understanding of medicine and its advances.

However, I am trying to think about the limitations of the medical model. Is it too mechanical? To what extent do the ideas of Eastern thought, especially in relation to the relationship between mind and body have to understanding sickness and health ? One aspect of this is the idea of 'healing' which may be about finding ways of working on 'emotional injuries' of the past. To what extent is this possible and, does it go beyond a physicalist understanding of mind and body, and the relationship between the two aspects in the greater understanding of human beings? Can sickness and healing be separated in understanding with working with physical, emotional and mental illness, and how are these aspects interconnected?

[JackDaydream]

One point which I wish to add, in order to avoid confusion, is that I am not wishing to point to an absolute division between Western and Easten medicine. In the twentieth first century, the medical model is important throughout the world. So, when I suggest a view of medicine based on Eastern metaphysics it is not a complete eithet/ or distinction. Also, it is likely that Western science and its associated metaphysics is known in most parts of the world, so I am not pointing to a completely different philosophy perspective but more of a subtle distinction, which sees reality and the mind/ body relationship a little differently.

[Pattern-chaser]

One memory this topic stirs in me is that, historically, doctors in China were not expected to heal the sick. They were considered successful only if their patients remained healthy in the first place. But perhaps that's an old wives' tale?

[JackDaydream]

One memory this topic stirs in me is that, historically, doctors in China were not expected to heal the sick. They were considered successful only if their patients remained healthy in the first place. But perhaps that's an old wives' tale?

It is hard to know if the idea of Chinese doctors not being expected to treat the sick is an old wives tale. Nevertheless, I think that the idea does express a different approach to health than in the West. Rather than paying attention to the body when it goes wrong there is an attention to health as an integral part of life to be worked with on an ongoing concern. This is central to the idea of complementary medicine and is taken on board by people in the West who have embraced it. Many people go for all kinds of treatments without being ill, including reflexology and shiatsu.

I don't even know what some of the therapies are although I did agree to being a case study for someone who I knew who was training to be a reflexology. This involved me having several treatments. I am not sure to what extent it helped me or not, and I can't say that I really liked having my feet fiddled around with.

But the question as to whether to attend to health before or after the body goes wrong does remain. There is growing awareness in health promotion of the ways in which people need to take responsibility for their health but sometimes this can appear too prescriptive, with saying all the things which one should not do not do. Also, there is a whole industry of supplements, including herbs for health. But it is a money making industry, whilst many are increasingly finding it hard to buy food.