The Extraneous Factor in Western Medicine

Romanucci‐Ross, Lola; Moerman, Daniel E.

doi:10.1525/eth.1988.16.2.02a00030

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…it is assumed," as some have done, "that if the proper chemical substance is present, the dosage prescribed would be adequate to produce the desired result" (Ortiz de Montellano 1975: 216; for failure to dose adequately, see Brun and Schumacher 1987;Estes 1979). It requires a leap of faith to extrapolate from laboratory analyses and animal experiments to the assumption that healing methods actually work in human patients (Etkin 1988;Romanucci-Ross and Moerman 1988).…”

Section: Laboratory Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The efficacy of Ethnomedicine: Research methods in trouble

Anderson

1991

Medical Anthropology

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One of the tasks of medical anthropology is to conduct research to evaluate the efficacy of traditional health care practices. The benefits of health care may be evaluated in numerous ways, but in this article we examine only the problem of how to determine whether a therapeutic intervention changes the pathophysiology of a disease. The randomized controlled trial is acknowledged as an ideal that will rarely be attainable by medical ethnographers. Individual case studies are primarily useful for hypothesis formation. We are left then with observational studies (case series) as a feasible and useful alternative. Those presently in the anthropological literature are examined and each is found to be flawed to some extent. Future investigations can profit from what was learned in these pioneer studies by giving more attention to patient selection, treatment description, and objective measures of outcome.

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Section: Laboratory Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The efficacy of Ethnomedicine: Research methods in trouble

Anderson

1991

Medical Anthropology

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“…However, the alleged chemical burden in the chemically sensitive body is not evidenced in pathological test results, which renders the possibility of a toxicological causation objectively immeasurable. This explanation thus contradicts biomedical science paradigms regarding the localization and measurability of disease (see Romanucci‐Ross and Moerman 1991:368).…”

Section: The Mcs Controversymentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Being faced with patients who have an anomalous and contested condition presents a professional challenge for all medical practitioners (Asbring and Närvänen 2003). As students of medicine specialize, they are taught within a rationalist tradition of knowledge, both in their formal education and in informal social interaction with their professional colleagues (Romanucci‐Ross and Moerman 1991). Medical students consequently learn to value certain kinds of information over others, such as the measurable from the immeasurable, the factual from the nonfactual, and the probable from the possible.…”

Section: From “Mainstream” Practitioner To Medical Maverick: the Specmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Medical students consequently learn to value certain kinds of information over others, such as the measurable from the immeasurable, the factual from the nonfactual, and the probable from the possible. Anything that cannot be measured “is deemed, more or less, not to exist; at best it is ignored in any notions of causality” (Romanucci‐Ross and Moerman 1991:368). As ever greater and more sensitive medical technology is developed to assess minute physiological abnormalities, the elusive nature of chemicals in MCS pathological test results renders the patient's chemical explanation increasingly perplexing.…”

Section: From “Mainstream” Practitioner To Medical Maverick: the Specmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When they are accused of being “outside credible toxicological opinion”—or treated as quacks or lepers —terms that imply they are suspect, are of dubious character, and should be isolated, these specialists are clearly being marginalized for “straying too far from the encoded clinical perspective” (Romanucci‐Ross and Moerman 1991:368). According to some members of the mainstream professional community, the motivations of plaintiff experts in contested illness lawsuits are questionable.…”

Section: Professional Isolation and Peer Pressurementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

“I Never Wanted to Be a Quack!”

Phillips

2010

Medical Anthropology Quarterly

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When medical practitioners act as expert witnesses for the plaintiff in contested illness lawsuits, they can be stigmatized by their professional community. Drawing on ethnographic research surrounding the condition multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) in Australia, this article focuses on: how plaintiff experts specialize; their rationale for deviance from the professional norm; and structural constraints to medical advocacy. By diagnosing and treating the condition as organic, these experts oppose the accepted disease paradigm of the medical community and therefore face professional isolation and peer pressure. They rationalize their continued advocacy within a moral discourse, which includes a professional aspiration toward altruism, an ethical commitment to "truth," and the explicit emphasis that financial gain is not a motivation. For their deviance the experts have been confronted with professional disillusionment and emotional drain. Ultimately, the medical profession is disenfranchising experts who may be vital characters in the quest for understanding about environmental illnesses.

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Human neuropsychology and the concept of culture

Blonder

1991

Human Nature

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American anthropology is distinguished by a four-fields approach in which biological, cultural, archaeological, and linguistic dimensions of behavior are examined in evolutionary and cross-cultural perspective. Nevertheless, assumptions of mind-body dualism pervade scholarly thinking in anthropology and have prevented the development of a truly integrated science of human experience. This dualism is most exemplified by the lack of consideration of the role of the brain in both "physical" and "mental" processes, including phenomena labeled as cultural. In this paper, I review neural mechanisms of learning, communication, and emotion, and discuss the implications of these findings for culture theory.

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The Extraneous Factor in Western Medicine

Cited by 10 publications

References 26 publications

The efficacy of Ethnomedicine: Research methods in trouble

The efficacy of Ethnomedicine: Research methods in trouble

“I Never Wanted to Be a Quack!”

Human neuropsychology and the concept of culture

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