So far in this short series on the biomedical model, I have looked at three of its founding principles: specific aetiology, germ theory, and Cartesian Dualism. In this post we’ll examine one of the facets of modern medicine that is perhaps the most familiar and tangible concept for modern-day physiotherapists – objectivity and experimentation. In the previous post on Cartesian Dualism, I explored how the French 16th century philosopher René Descartes argued that there was no way to prove the existence of anything, because our dreams were so real we could never prove that we were not dreaming right now. What Descartes showed was that we could not trust our senses and that seeing … [Read more...] about What is the biomedical model #4
New: Alliances
If you were to design a health care system from scratch, and began with the people you wanted to form key alliances with, who would you choose? Doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, podiatrists...? In the past, the choice might have been easy. Health care was strictly hierarchical and doctors were at the top of the pyramid. No health professional could become established without the patronage of the medical profession. But is that still true today? Health care consumers now have much greater choice when it comes to health providers and they are exercising their choice in innovative and interesting ways. Over-the-counter remedies, alternative and complementary therapies, … [Read more...] about New: Alliances
Physiotherapy and the zone of play
I'm doing a public lecture next week on physical therapies in the 19th century (you will be able to see a live feed or delayed broadcast of it here if you're interested in hearing about it), and the whole project has been fascinating. One thing that occurred to me doing the preparation for the talk was how many images there are of people sitting in mud baths and hot springs. There was never any real proof that these things did anything other than warm you up, but there was a lot of anecdotal evidence that they were used to treat all sorts of diseases, from syphilis to sciatica, asthma to psoriasis. Suffice to say, in 19th century New Zealand, hot pools were a natural phenomenon, … [Read more...] about Physiotherapy and the zone of play