Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2003; 8: 145
Hahnemann’s Organon (1810–1842), Kneipp’s My Watercure (1886) and Steiner’s Introducing Anthroposophical Medicine (1920) are made an object of textual linguistics. The three classical texts of Germany’s natural medicine were generated in a period of a little more than 100 years as manifestos of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) against ‘the school’. Central conceptual aspects are compared and referred to their historical background.
By criteria of intertextual linguistics (Genette), textual analysis refers to the three texts as a common ‘corpus’ and to historical ‘hypotexts’ (Paracelsian tradition, nineteenth century autobiography). Linguistics of narrative (Prince) and metaphor (Lakoff/Johnson) are useful tools to decipher the textual tradition, typology, mode of generation and the transported concepts.
Textual typology may be described as a blend of hermetic tradition (Eco) with nineteenth century religious autobiography (G. S. Rousseau, ): narratives of ‘sin’ (illness) and ‘salvation’ (healing). The transported concepts stress different parts of the Paracelsian legacy (simile, inherent healer, pharmacosemiotics) and on patients’ autonomy.
One may discuss whether CAM is more characterised by traditional meaning (‘sin’, ‘salvation’) and experiences (e.g. autonomy) not available in conventional doctor–patient interaction than by its often poorly documented scientifically based efficacy.
