Medical Error and Medical Truth: The Placebo Effect and Room for Choice in Ayurveda

Authors

  • Dominik Wujastyk University of Vienna

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/hcs.2011.14

Keywords:

Ayurveda, India, Medicine, Alternative medicine, Establishment medicine, Placebo, Meaning effect, Iatrogenic death, Britain, National Health Service

Abstract

I attempt to relativize allopathic medicine, or Modern Establishment Medicine (MEM), specifically in the context of the ayurvedic medical system of India, and to promote Daniel Moerman’s concept of the medical “meaning response” as a preferable conceptualization of the phenomena usually subsumed under the name “placebo.” Finally, I suggest that once these steps have been taken, a space opens up in which informed ayurvedic practice – indeed, any human activities aimed at promoting health – may find a valid place.

Author Biography

Dominik Wujastyk, University of Vienna

wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter

References

Aylin, Paul, Shivani Tanna, Alex Bottle, and Brian Jarman (2004). “Dr

Foster’s Case Notes: How Often are Adverse Events Reported in English

Hospital Statistics?” British Medical Journal, 329(7462), 369, 547.

Banerjee, Madhulika (1995). Power, Culture, Medicine: A Study of Ayurvedic

Pharmaceuticals in India. Ph.D. thesis, University of Delhi, Department of

Political Science, Delhi.

— (2002). “Public Policy and Ayurveda; Modernising a Great Tradition.”

Economic and Political Weekly, XXXVII(12), 1137–46.

— (2004). “Local Knowledge for World Market: Globalising Ayurveda.”

Economic and Political Weekly, XXXIX(1), 89–93.

Donaldson, Liam (2000). An Organisation with a Memory: Report of an Ex-

pert Group on Learning from Adverse Events in the NHS Chaired by the Chief

Medical Officer. The Stationary Office.

Horacio Fabrega, Jr. (2002). “Medical Validity in Eastern and Western

Traditions.” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 45(3), 395–415.

Horton, Richard (2003). Second Opinion. Doctors, Diseases and Decisions in

Modern Medicine. London: Granta Books.

Illich, Ivan (1976). Limits to Medicine: Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of

Health. London: Penguin. Illich (1986) gives a ten-year retrospective on

Medical Nemesis.

— (1986). “Body History.” The Lancet, 328, 1325–27.

Kafetz, Alex (ed.) (2010). Hospital Guide 2010. What Makes a Good Hospital?

Test Results. London: Dr Foster Intelligence.

Moerman, Daniel E. (1979). “Anthropology of Symbolic Healing.” Current

Anthropology, 20(1), 59–80.

— (2002). Meaning, Medicine and the ’Placebo Effect’, vol. 9 of Cambridge Stud-

ies in Medical Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ramsey, Matthew (1999). “Alternative Medicine in Modern France.”

Medical History, 43(3), 286–322.

Ross, Richard S. (1975). “Ischemic Heart Disease, an Overview.” American

Journal of Cardiology, 36, 496–505.

Shiva, Vandana (1988). “Reductionist Science as Epistemological

Violence.” In Ashis Nandy (ed.), Science, Hegemony and Violence: a Requiem

for Modernity, chap. 7, pp. 232–256. New Delhi: Oxford University Press,

th edn.

Smith, Richard (1991). “Editorial: Where’s the Wisdom?” British Medical

Journal, 303(6806), 798–9.

Turnbull, David (1997). “Rationality, Objectivity, and Method.” In Helaine

Selin (ed.), Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine

in non-Western Cultures, pp. 845–50. Kluwer Academic.

— (2000). “Clarity, Charity and Criticism, Wit, Wisdom and Worldliness:

Avoiding Intellectual Impositions.” Metascience, 9(3), 347–351. In “A

Review Gymnasium on Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, Intellectual Impos-

tures: Postmodern Philosophers’ Abuse of Science (London: Profile Books,

”.

Wujastyk, Dominik (2003). The Roots of Āyurveda: Selections from Sanskrit

Medical Writings. London, New York, etc.: Penguin Group, third edn.

Downloads

Published

2011-11-02

Issue

Vol 1, No 1 (2011): PERSPECTIVES

Section

Invited Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.