Complementary and Alternative Medicines

Until recently complementary medical knowledge has generally been treated as "marginal" or 'heterodox' knowledge. However, the rise of complementary medicines within the health-care system of Britain, and other countries, has signalled the end of their marginal status. With this have come concerns about how knowledge is generated within complementary therapies; what kind of authority can be accorded to such knowledge; the nature of research agendas; what ideas and skill are central to training and how they are transmitted. This book examines these concerns in relation to a range of healing practices, in particular acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic, Chi Kung, herbalism and osteopathy. The contributors address such questions as: * what special kinds of knowledge underlie the practices of complementary medicines? * how have they been received by the medical establishment? * how have they been developed and transmitted by complementary therapists? * what use have patients themselves made of holistic knowledge? * are we seeing a postmodern fragmentation of knowledge? The contributors to the book bring sociological, anthropological and practitioner perspectives to the growing debate about the future of complementary medicine