1998: Healing or Curing: Is there a clash of worldviews underlying alternative and bio-molecular medicine?

The May Dialogues 1998

HEALING or CURING?

Is There a Clash of World-Views Underlying Alternative and Bio-Molecular Medicine?

An Open Conference
of the
Scientific and Medical Network
with
Dr. Stephen Fulder, Dr. Susanna Graham-Jones, Dr. Kim Jobst

to be held at

Colet House, 151 Talgarth Road, London W14 (near Baron's Court Tube)

on Saturday 16th May 1998

In considering the nature of health, few meetings address the philosophical assumptions that underlie modern medicine. The Complementary Medicine Group in the Network has considered the relationship between theory and practice in alternative and complementary medicine. It became clear that the most fundamental divisions arose from different definitions of what a human being is. Orthodox biomedical science teaches a mechanistic way of thinking about medicine, while vitalism and more subtle views about the nature of health and sickness energy (such as chi in Chinese medicine) are central to some complementary and alternative medicine ways of thinking. This is turn can underpin different explanatory schemes and methods of diagnosis.

The speakers will explore their perspectives on some hidden assumptions and models about health inherent in current practices of complementary and conventional medicines Furthermore, how do such factors affect the patient and practitioner and the future of complementary medicine? What kinds of integration are possible given the differences in world-view? This kind of debate is crucial at a time when there is increasing pressure on complementary and alternative medicine to conform to the dominant paradigm, and define its mission accordingly.

Programme

9:00	Registration.
9:40	Introduction by Dr. Peter Fenwick
10:00	Dr. Stephen Fulder: Competing Concepts of Health within the Therapeutic Process
10:45	Dr. Susanna Graham-Jones: Stretching a Point? Complementary Therapies in the New Medical School Curriculum
11.30	Coffee
12:00	Dr. Kim Jobst: Disease as a Manifestation of Health
12:45	Panel discussion
1.15	Lunch
2.30	Discussion in groups
3.45	Tea
4.15	Plenary dialogue session
5.45	Conclusions

Tickets

Admission will be by ticket only, price £25 (students and UB40s £18) inclusive of coffee, tea and VAT. You are strongly advised to bring your own lunch, although there are a few shops and cafés nearby.

 Dr. Stephen Fulder, M.A., Ph.D. was born in London in 1946. He has a degree in biochemistry from Oxford University. He received his doctorate in 1975 for research into the molecular biology of the ageing process. He has been a lecturer at London University, Benares Hindu University (India), and the Haddassah Hospital Department of Social Medicine, Jerusalem. He has been involved for 25 years in research, consultancy, lecturing and writing on non-conventional medicine, especially herbs, where he offers a unique approach combining traditional knowledge, medical research and personal experience. He has written 11 books on these subjects, both academic and popular. One of his best known books is The Handbook of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, now in its third edition. He has also written around 40 scientific papers and a similar number of popular articles, and lectures worldwide at seminars, congresses and meetings on phytopharmaceuticals and alternative healthcare. He moved to Israel in 1980 where he has been instrumental in establishing a medicinal plant industry, and he is also now involved in a new regional project on Arab indigenous medicine. He lives on a farm, where he grows his own medicines. He has also been engaged in meditation practice for 20 years.

Dr. Kim Jobst, M.A., D.M., M.R.C.P. is Senior Registrar in Medicine and Homoeopathy and Honorary University Research Fellow, Glasgow University Department of Medicine and Therapeutics. He was previously Clinical Director of the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing (OPTIMA) and Bristol-Myers Squibb Clinical Research Fellow, Oxford University. He is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine: Research on Paradigm, Practice and Policy and a member of the Prince of Wales's working group on integrated medicine. His research interests include science and healing, particularly in relation to dementia and the interface of alternative and complementary medicines with orthodox science and medicine. He is training as a Jungian analytical psychologist. His main interest is the healing of the whole person and the symbolic nature of the therapeutic encounter.

Dr. Susanna Graham-Jones, M.B., B.S., D. Phil., M.R.C.G.P. is a lecturer in general practice at Oxford University. She trained at Oxford and St. Mary's Paddington and is interested in mental health and social medicine. She studied 'functional' symptoms as a trainee in general practice, and whilst running a primary care project in Nepal she became interested in potential benefits of collaboration between traditional healers and paramedis in the government run primary health care service. On return to the UK in 1985 she became a lecturer in general practice at Liverpool, practising in a deprived inner city area. She moved back to Oxford in 1993 and has been involved in developing an integrated course in public health and primary care for medical students.

Dr. Peter Fenwick, M.B., B.Chir., B.A., D.P.M., F.R.C.Psych. is emeritus consultant clinical neuropsychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital and remains consultant clinical neurophysiologist at the Radcliffe Infirmary. He is Chairman of the Scientific and Medical Network Council.