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7. Conclusion
To the Heart of the Matter
The traditions within WHM represent a vitalistic therapeutic approach, which has its basis in
empirical therapeutic understanding. The information presented illustrates that historically, the
fundamental concepts that underpin contemporary WHM are embodied in the descriptions of
Humoral Medicine and Physiomedicalist inspired practice.
Analysing these two therapeutic approaches, in the context of a comparison with biomedical
understanding reveals the intricacy in which the relatively abstract descriptions found within these
approaches demonstrate a consummate understanding of health, disease and therapeutic practice.
The ideological frameworks, that are inherent within Humoral Medicine and Physiomedicalism
prescribe an understanding of the relationship between CV illness and the emotional state, which
can be seen to correspond with the theoretical concepts proposed by a PNE understanding.
The descriptions and application of the herbal materia medica within the fundamental concepts of
contemporary WHM, also reflects this understanding. The empirically based descriptions of the
application of herbal remedies elucidate the intimacy between CV activity and the emotional
condition, which is implicit in the ideological framework of WHM.
The fundamental tenets of biomedical science have been cultivated within the reductionist
paradigm. This contextual development of biomedicine necessitated its dissociation from vitalistic
understanding, which occurred towards the end of the 19 th century C.E. The post-modern
developments within biomedical understanding have however, instituted a reversal of this
dissociation, and an acknowledgement that vitalistic principles could accommodate an enhanced
understanding of the mind-body relationship.
It could be considered that the ideological concepts; embodied within the practice of contemporary
WHM and in the principles of Humoral Medicine and Physiomedicalism, could contain aspects of
mind-body understanding, which have not yet been defined by PNE research. An explication of the
fundamental concepts within contemporary WHM could facilitate a more comprehensive
understanding of the nature of disease aetiology.
Since the emergence of Physiomedicalism, WHM has adapted biomedical concepts to extend the
framework within which therapeutic understanding is applied. This eclectic context of
contemporary WHM has maintained a non-reductionist epistemological position, which advocates a
vitalistic therapeutic approach. The incorporation of vitalistic principles within post-modern
biomedical understanding could constitute a conjunction, at which the historically defined
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