Oriental Medicine or Medical Orientalism?

[salvorhardin]

I just posted this in the health forum but it's definitely something the denizens of our little group would enjoy too.

The following is the second adapted excerpt of an upcoming article called “The Untold Story of Acupuncture.” It is scheduled to be published in December 2009 in Focus in Alternative and Complementary Therapies (FACT), a review journal that presents the evidence on alternative medicine in an analytical and impartial manner. This section argues that the current flurry of interest in acupuncture and Oriental Medicine stems predominantly out of postmodern opposition to Enlightenment rationalism, and bears witness to Orientalism and consumerism in contemporary medicine. ...

This unfounded belief seems to stem out of our collective amnesia about lancing and bloodletting, and the belief in the existence of pneuma, or other vitalist notions that have been part of European natural philosophy and medicine since the Greek Antiquity. Indeed, as a result of successive epistemological ruptures11 during the last five centuries, medicine in the West has gradually evolved from late medieval astromedicine and humoral pathology to the molecular medicine and cellular pathology of today. Therefore, fundamental notions that once underlined European medicine have gradually become so foreign to us that their Eastern counterparts now seem to be based on worldviews fundamentally different than ours. But in the eyes of many historians and epistemologists, they have always appeared as similar to ideas that prevailed in Pre-Enlightenment Europe, and based on which the Fasciculus Medicinae12 and other late medieval medical treatises were written.

These ideas continue to find an audience in todays’s post-Counterculture era due to the continued postmodern opposition to Enlightenment rationalism and the claim that modern science does not provide more access to the truth than any other fields of knowledge–that scientific discourse is mainly just another coherent “narrative” or “language-game” governed by a set of protocols and a special terminology.13,14 In this climate of incredulity toward “metanarratives” and universal knowledge, many nonscientific forms of knowledge have gained legitimacy and popularity as a result of the prevalence of postmodern culture, politics and economics. Many ancient, folkloric and traditional systems of medicine have thus appeared as compelling narratives, perceived by patients as legitimate and equivalent but opposite to the logical empiricism of modern science.

The persistence of such ideas is also due to what the late Edward Saïd (1935–2003) has called Orientalism. In a 1978 publication by the same name, Saïd convincingly argued that the idea that Eastern cultures have crucial characteristics directly and unequivocally opposite to the West is a Western construct that “exotices” the East while neglecting considerations of power. Saïd argued that the alleged distinction between Oriental and Occidental thought primarily derives from a set of scholarly and popular fantasies about Eastern civilizations, Classical Eras, Golden Ages, scriptures, works of art, philosophies and religions where mysticism is set against the rationalism and detachment of the West.15 Saïd also argued that this mythical Orient is a mere fiction that serves to represent the hidden desires of Western cultures, a mysterious “Other” onto which we project our fantasies.16 The pervasiveness of such projected fantasies about Eastern reactions to health and disease onto acupuncture and Chinese medicine, certainly confirms Saïd’s argument. The fictional character of this “Other” medicine can be further perceived in the indecisiveness of the professional associations and the regulatory agencies to refer to acupuncture and related modalities as “Chinese,” “Oriental,” “Asian” or “Eastern,” for these utterly broad “umbrella” categorizations are based on political correctness, and do not correspond to any geopolitical and historical reality other than a geographical and philosophical “orient”-ation.
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=930

The first excerpt is here:

Astrology With Needles

...It argues that if the effects of “real” and “sham” acupuncture do not significantly differ in well-conducted trials, it is because traditional theories for selecting points and means of stimulation are not based on an empirical rationale, but on ancient cosmology, astrology and mythology. These theories significantly resemble those that underlined European and Islamic astrological medicine and bloodletting in the Middle-Ages.
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=583

[realisticphish]

1. Wow

this is absolutely fascinating. And true, IMHO.

I've always noted that there is a subtle racism to a lot of alt med and meditation culture stuff. It's not explicit, but it just seems like they try to boil an entire culture into a medical procedure or a mantra.

[salvorhardin]

2. Well, to be fair, it's not just alt med and other forms of woo

Take the term weaboo for instance. It's used to refer to obnoxious, uneducated fans of Japanese culture, as opposed to a mere anime fan who might actually know a lot about Japanese culture but isn't boastful or completely obsessed by it. It's really a modern form of Orientalism, a subtle racism that romanticizes the "otherness" of Japanese culture. And of course, as Edward Said pointed out, it crops up all over Western culture, particularly in the early-mid 1800s. Although I wonder if post-World War II Japanese fascination with American culture isn't really a similar phenomenon, a sort of Americanalism if you will.

But yeah, this is hands down the best look at the history of acupuncture I've read to date.

[onager]

3. Oh, those asshats...

You practically stumble over a certain kind of American in Tokyo. They usually get jobs managing a small mousehole bar or coffeehouse, and turn it into their own little salon where they bloviate about their Japanese Obsession of the Week to tourists and a few of the dumber locals.

Books may be around, but only ones approved by the Resident Asshat, who will try and force you to read one. Sometimes before you finish your beer/coffee. Even worse, sometimes they wrote the book...

They're a weird lot, and generally come off like some kind of bizarre Reverse Missionaries.

They seem to be especially numerous in Roppongi district, the night-life area where most of the foreign embassies are located. I had more fun getting thrown out of the "no foreigner" porn shops in Shinjuku.

(Not an expert on Tokyo, just went there on a couple of extended business trips. And this was a few years ago, so maybe things have changed.)

"Orientalism" does have a long and dishonorable history. Switching continents, one of the most famous was the explorer Richard Burton. While in the Middle East, he decided he wanted to convert to Islam. But by then, his habit of putting on and discarding Exotic Foreign Cultures was well known. The Muslims didn't bite and refused to convert him.

[moggie]

7. Have you read "Hokkaido Highway Blues"?

Travel book by Will Ferguson, about his experiences hitchhiking the length of Japan. He's a Canadian who worked in Japan for five years. I was reminded of this passage, where he's riding with Hitoshi, an art teacher and fellow traveller who has his own idea of otherness:

"I was alone in India," he said, as though that answered some unasked question. "I was alone, solo travel. It was before Nepal. I was sweating, my shirt is like a bath. They said to me, India has three seasons: hot, hotter, hottest." He smiled.

"Is that all you remember of India, that it was hot?"

"No," he said, and there was a long pause. "India, Calcutta. So many poor people, hands like this, out for money please. 'Rupee please, you give rupee please.' One day I was in the feeling to joke. And this little girl, she is a beggar, maybe Untouchable. She asked me many times, rupee please, rupee please. I saw her every day, in front of my hotel. So I wanted to make a joke, you understand? Just a joke. So I said to her, 'Why I give you money? I am poor too. Why'-" and his voice cracked. He was staring hard at the road ahead. "-I said, 'Why I give you money? You should give me money, I am poor,' I said to her."

He filled his chest and let it out slowly, a long, extended sigh. I waited, but he didn't say anything.

"So what happened?" I asked. "What did she do?"

"She gave me some money."

...

Much is made of Japan's insularity. Too much. Commentators tend to treat the country as though it were disconnected from the rest of the world. But no nation looks as longingly or with such mixed emotions to the outside world as does Japan. Japan was never a crossroads of civilisations, it was always on the periphery, and the elements of other cultures, particularly Western cultures, have been imported painstakingly and at great cost. Today, as the world tilts toward the Pacific, Japan finds itself in the one position she has never prepared herself for: a crossroads of kingdoms, the meeting point of great cultural and economic currents. Worlds have collided and Japan is suddenly a pivotal point. It has been a trauma as much as a triumph.

The Japanese can never forget the world that exists out there, like a fog bank, beyond its islands' edge. It is their obsession, their neurosis, their fantasy. If Westerners have an ambivalent attitude toward Japan, then the reverse is doubly true. To the Japanese, we are legion: we are conquerors, barbarians, superiors, inferiors, dreams projected, lives unlived, icons, buffoons, the purveyors of greater ideas and nobler arts, taller, louder, faster, less refined, more sophisticated. We are all this and more, compressed into a ball the size of a fist that sits in the stomach of the Japanese.

Arrogance is always an overreaction. So is self-loathing. The Japanese have been overreacting to the West since the day the American commodore Matthew Perry sailed his Black Ships into Tokyo Bay in 1854 and forced Japan to open up its ports for trade. Until then, Japan had been cloaked in a world of shoguns and clan lords, the longest totalitarian rule in human history. Japan's much-vaunted insularity ended with Perry's crusade. It was date rape and it set the tone, back and forth, between Japan and the West that has continued right through to the present. If the West loves and hates Japan, Japan LOVES and HATES the West. Japan can do everything but forget us, we who exist out there.

The Japanese attitude to the rest of Asia is even more problematic. On the surface, they treat the rest of the continent like embarrassing country bumpkins, related only distantly to themselves. They are proud to be Japanese; they are ashamed to be Asian. This conflict runs right down the center of their soul. India, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Korea: they lie like a stone beside the heart.

Travelers and commentators rarely place Japan in an international context because it is in their interest to make Japan seem more exotic and other-worldly than it is. We all want to be mystic explorers, but Japan is not other-worldly. Neither is it near at hand. It lies somewhere in between. Chiemi was right; Japan is caught in a permanent midstep, one foot in Asia, one in the West.

[moggie]

5. The otherness of the east seems irresistible to woo proponents

Here's one example I encounted on DU: "In indigenous Asian languages, all words are verbs and have transitory meanings". If someone said that about Swedish, people would think: huh? That couldn't possibly work! But those Asians, well, they're different, aren't they? This sort of thing is less obviously malign than more familiar forms of racism, but reducing an entire complex culture to a set of superficial anti-rational stereotypes in support of your nutty ideas is not very respectful to its people.

Take the term weaboo for instance. It's used to refer to obnoxious, uneducated fans of Japanese culture, as opposed to a mere anime fan who might actually know a lot about Japanese culture but isn't boastful or completely obsessed by it.

Ugh. Since I like animation in general, I've watched a fair bit of anime, but I pretty much gave up on reading anime groups online because of those. It's not just anime, of course:


http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/4/26/

Although I wonder if post-World War II Japanese fascination with American culture isn't really a similar phenomenon, a sort of Americanalism if you will.

Well, let's not fall into the trap of orientalism ourselves. The whole world is fascinated with American culture. The slightly peculiar, ambivalent nature of the Japanese attitude to America probably dates from Commodore Perry... but many cultures simultaneously admire and despise America.

I'll need to look out for the full article, which looks very interesting.

[salvorhardin]

8. ROFL! That's funny

Oh, you silly absolutist you. She did say indigenous Asians like Cherokee Indians. :D Interestingly enough, I had a high school language teacher (she taught French and Spanish) tell me once that the Japanese have a different sense of time and space than we do, that's why their language has no future tense. :crazy:

I've watched a lot of anime too. I know what you mean about the anime discussion forums. I still like Megatokyo though I never venture into their forums.

Although I wonder if post-World War II Japanese fascination with American culture isn't really a similar phenomenon, a sort of Americanalism if you will.

Well, let's not fall into the trap of orientalism ourselves. The whole world is fascinated with American culture. The slightly peculiar, ambivalent nature of the Japanese attitude to America probably dates from Commodore Perry... but many cultures simultaneously admire and despise America.

True. And I imagine having two major cities erased by atomic bombs, others repeatedly firebombed and then subjected to military occupation tends to leave an indelible impression on a culture so I can understand Japanese youth of that period and their children developing a fascination with American pop culture.

[Orrex]

4. Where's the part about acupuncture being wholly unchanged for millennia?

I'm sure I heard about that somewhere.



Incidentally, the article nicely highlights a lot of what I hate hate hate about postmodernism.

[TransitJohn]

6. Thanks for posting.

I perceive not just a romanticism towards the orient, but also to Native Americans.