sdyer@bbncc5.UUCP (Steve Dyer) (09/02/85)
While wandering through the "health" section of a bookstore, challenged
by the recent controversies, I came across several rather interesting
books, one of which I purchased and read.
Two were "The Berkeley Holistic Health Handbook" and "The NEW Berkeley
Holistic Health Handbook"--I might have gotten the titles slightly wrong.
I just browsed through these, with the same kind of fascination that a
Christian Scientist might bring to a medical volume. Both were actually
quite short on theories and therapies, and very long on the new-age
feel-good jargon which I must admit I have a very low tolerance for: I
began to go into diabetic shock after a few pages. There were brief
descriptions of iridology and reflexology which are useful to get a
handle on just what Stoll and Stanions are talking about.
I actually purchased Andrew Weil's book, "Health and Healing", since I
admired his "The Natural Mind" so many years ago. Weil is a M.D., a
pharmacologist and an ethnobotanist who has spent the last few years
examining the nature of health and healing with special attention to
cross-cultural and non-allopathic practices. He examines traditional
allopathy, from the days of Heroic Medicine in the 18th and 19th centuries
up to today, homeopathy, chiropractic, and osteopathy, faith healing,
traditional Chinese medicine, and the late 20th century "holistic health"
movement. He ends with an attempt at a grand synthesis of why all these
disparate fields can effect cures and maintain health in its practitioners.
I found it a very interesting exposition, giving a good historical background
of the various schools of health care. I must say, however, that Weil seems
entirely too credulous when it comes to believing some of the poorly
substantiated claims of some of the fields; he seems willing to believe
if only so that he can make his point, which focuses on the healing power
of the human body itself and the "placebo effect" as an active part of
all therapies. Still, it is a challenging book to read, if only to
engage one's critical faculties, and he spares no particular school
of health care in pointing out the shortcomings he sees. It's available
in paperback, Houghton Mifflin, 1983.
--
/Steve Dyer
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