Alternative medicine? : a history /

Bivins (Cardiff Univ.) compares and contrasts the acceptance of outside medical practices into the cultures of Eastern and Western societies, demonstrating how biomedicine was historically hostile to alternative medicine. He portrays moxibustion (point-of-pain burning) and acupuncture in Europe and the US as receiving marginal acceptance from the medical establishment in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When first introduced through the Dutch colonial empire in the 17th and 18th centuries, they had a more positive reception. Mesmerism (hypnosis) was initially successful in Europe until a French medical review committee found its developer, Franz Mesmer (1734-1815), to be a charlatan. The British had more success with mesmerism in colonial India. The author traces homeopathy in India as an example of a Western medical practice in the East. "Integrative medicine" frequently is used now instead of the terms alternative, complementary, or cross-cultural medicine because many see an element of patronization in the latter terms. Bivins prefers to use "cross-cultural"--hence her writing, often convoluted in format, appears somewhat passe. Contemporary illustrations are included. Summing Up: Recommended. Libraries supporting a history of medicine curriculum; upper-level undergraduates and above. R. D. Arcari University of Connecticut School of Medicine

As a child, medical historian Bivins was treated by a healer in Nigeria and an M.D. in Boston; the experience left her convinced that, though effective, the Western model of medicine is "far from complete." Looking from Aristotle?s day to the present, Bivins compiles a history of patient care as performed by the "rival systems" of traditional-cultural healing practices, more or less the global norm before the late 18th century, and the scientific orthodoxy that came to replace it in Europe and America. Looking at such examples as a West Indian herbal cure for gout that gained purchase in 18th century Europe, Bivins traces the infiltration of such ideas as acupuncture, mesmerism and homeopathy into the rapidly calcifying biomedical hegemony of the West, and the "?legitimate? medical offspring" they engendered. Bivins? research is thorough throughout-including a wide range of scientists, thinkers and spiritualists while shifting from Europe to India to the Far East and back-but so is her disdain for a system that posits "increasingly costly" and ever-narrowing options for both patients and practitioners. Her strident tone may not convince anyone not already on her side, but Bivins? history is a provocative, far-sighted take on a long-debated subject. (Feb.) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.