Integration and Paradigm Clash
The Practical Difficulties of Integrative Medicine
ResearchPosted on rand.org 2004Published in: The Mainstreaming of Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Studies in Social Context / Edited by Philip Tovey, Gary Easthope and Jon Adams (London ; New York: Routledge, 2004), p. 103-122
Despite all the concerns in orthodox medicine about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), it is clear that a major paradigm shift is also occurring within medicine itself. Within a very short period of time, medicine has moved from outright hostility to CAM to acknowledging its existence and finally co-operating with, and embracing, CAM. Increasingly, medicine is incorporating CAM into medical education and practice. Furthermore, this paradigm is increasingly being identified as `integrative medicine'. This chapter will explore the challenge posed by trying to integrate two paradigms that hold fundamentally contradictory beliefs, and differing philosophies, about health and healthcare. The chapter will draw on Thomas Kuhn's (1962) work on paradigms to explore this problem.
Topics
Document Details
- Copyright: Routledge
- Availability: Non-RAND
- Year: 2004
- Pages: 11
- Document Number: EP-200400-02
This publication is part of the RAND external publication series. Many RAND studies are published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, as chapters in commercial books, or as documents published by other organizations.
RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.