CONTRASTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE MEDICAL MODEL

HEALTH AND THE TRADITIONAL VIEW

Medical Model a.k.a. DisEASE Model”

HEALTH AND THE TRADITIONAL VIEW

Rooted in Cartesian thinking Descartes’ view was mechanistic Newtonian classical physics completed this

mechanistic view

HEALTH AND THE TRADITIONAL VIEW

Newton developed a consistent mathematical formulation of the mechanistic view of nature – the three dimensional space of classical Euclidian geometry

Elements of the Newtonian world were material particles, small, solid and indestructable objects – the building blocks of all matter

HEALTH AND THE TRADITIONAL VIEW

The body was viewed like a clock, that could be divided into mechanical parts, like a machine

HEALTH AND THE TRADITIONAL VIEW

From the second half of the seventeenth century to the end of the nineteenth, the Newtonian model dominated all scientific thought

In biomedical science, the Cartesian view of living organisms as machines, constructed from separate parts, still provides the dominant framework today

HEALTH AND THE TRADITIONAL VIEW

Scientific paradigms are based on verification and experimental data

The old paradigm is good!

HEALTH AND THE TRADITIONAL VIEW

1320-1429: Bubonic Plague reduced the population of Europe by two-thirds.

1793: Yellow fever killed more than 6,000 of Philadelphia’s 30,000 residents

Typhoid and Pneumonia killed at a steady rate year after year.

These diseases were caused by microorganisms People vulnerable to unchanging mortality rates.

HEALTH AND THE TRADITIONAL VIEW

1860’s – Medicine became scientific – Era 1 1870 - “Germ Theory of Disease” came into

use in the English-language medical literature

1920’s – Vaccines (diptheria) 1930’s - Sulfonamides (antibacterial) 1940’s – Antibiotics (penicillin)

HEALTH AND THE TRADITIONAL VIEW

Victory over illness seemed possible We now assume there should be a cure for

every disease Before Era 1 – people did not expect cures,

illnesses ran their course w/o complaint Now, we expect to be healed and healed fast

LIMITATIONS OF THE TRADITIONAL VIEW OF HEALTH

Current views of life, death, health, and disease rests solidly on seventeenth-century physics

Newtonian descriptions of space, time, matter, and causation have been radically revised and previous assumptions have been redefined.

HEALTH AND THE TRADITIONAL VIEW

The new paradigm does not make the old paradigm wrong, but points out its limitations and extends science to a new horizon.

MODERN PHYSICS

20th Century Einstein’s Theory of Relativity: E=MC 1935: “a change in the spin of one particle in

a two particle system would affect its twin simultaneously, even if the two had been widely separated in the meantime.”

1960: Chaos Theory

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

The flapping of butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere causing, over time, changes that could result elsewhere in a tornado

EINSTEIN’S THEORY

Solves Aristotle's problem of Metaphysics (Prime Mover), by describing the one substance that exists (Space) and its properties (Wave Medium), which then

Solves David Hume's Problem of Causation and Necessary Connection by explaining how matter is necessarily interconnected to other matter in Space by its spherical In and Out Waves.

MODERN PHYSICS

1964: Bell’s Theorum: Instantaneous change in widely separated systems did occur (technically impossible to confirm)

1972: Clauser confirmed the statistical predictions of quantum mechanics using photons, calcite crystals, and photomultiplier tubes

Contrasting Old and New Models

All accepted features of Newtonian physics: The nature of space, time, matter, and

causation – have been radically revised in modern physics

TRADITIONAL MODERN

The body is an object, localized in a specific space, and is an isolated self-contained unit

The body is not an object localized in space, but is in dynamic relationship with all other bodies, sharing energetic exchanges

TRADITIONAL MODERN

Health is an individual affair, affecting a single body

Health extends to all other bodies, since all bodies are in a dynamic relationship. Individual health is an illusion

TRADITIONAL MODERN

Illness is a process experienced by individual bodies.

Therapy affects individual bodies

Illness is a collective event, since the body is always in relationship with other bodies.

Therapy affects all bodies.

Accessible Readings

Niels Bohr David Bohm Fritjof Capra William Tiller Fred Alan Wolf

References

Space, Time & Medicine, Larry Dossey Reinventing Medicine, Larry Dossey http://www.imho.com/grae/chaos/chaos.html http://www.vccaedu.org/inquiry/inquiry-fall99/

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