Schulmedizin – Osteopathie - Osteopathic Research

Knowledge of Osteopathy and its Acceptance by Conventionally Trained Physicians in the Canton of Zurich: An Online Poll by Konstanze Wiesend 2009
dogmas, faith, roots in magic and religion and the intuitive approach are only a few of
the criticisms voiced (Rüegg, 2008; Jänz, 2006; Angell und Kassirer, 1998).
Academic medicine, on the other hand, is criticized for becoming more and more
mathematical, technical and cold. There are only reproducibility and significance
(Nager, 2000 und 2007). Then again, nobody can deny the blessings and advances
of traditional/academic medicine (Nager, 2007).
Just as conventional medicine claims to have learned from its mistakes again
and again and to have corrected itself, it blames CAM not to do the same but to
instead reinterpret its founding text:
The advantage of conventional medicine is that, even though it is wrong from time to
time, it can admit to its errors and thus correct its assumptions. This way, the error is
removed. The drawback of most complementary medicines is their almost religious
structure, which requires the reinterpretation of errors because there cannot be an
error in a religious system. The error remains but is reinterpreted. (Unknown author, in
Wiesend, 2009)
Kessler points out that the belief in a scientific, modern medicine on one hand,
and an unscientific CAM on the other is a widespread phenomenon on the medical
scene (Kessler, 2006, p. 218). Reality, however, shows a different picture, according
to him. He quotes a study from JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association)
entitled „The ongoing and unethical administration of clinical studies of insufficient
quality” (Halpern, 2002), showing that in conventional medicine as well study results
are often based on shaky data.
In this context, Weilenmann (2009) asks two questions: Is the double blind
study, as a simple mathematical model connecting only two or three factors with one
another, an appropriate means to describe the complexity of healing processes?
How can conventional medicine, which does not have at its disposal a logical model
of the conflict between body and soul, support its claim to absolute applicability
(Weilenmann, 2009)? He advocates a glance at other disciplines like quantum
physics and chaos theory for a transfer of their learnings to human beings. He quotes
a study by Grossarth-Marticek in what is known as systemic epidemiology, stating:
Systemic epidemiology questions monocausal concepts and views monocausal
thinking as blocking the development of science and research. While problems are
multicausal, human institutions tend towards wanting to meet these problems using
monocausal analyses and interventions. Such steps are destined to fail (Grossarth-
Marticek, quoted in Weilenmann, 2009).
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