Patients' views of alternative medicine

Abstract

This thesis is about the views of patients in New Zealand, who consult alternative therapists. It is an account of their histories, their ideas about health and healing, and the practices they use to maintain health. It therefore offers a view of health and healing that is different from that implicit or explicit in the orthodox medical system which is publicly accepted and supported. The aims of the thesis were to explore the views of people who consult alternative therapists, and, through this investigation, to discover why they chose alternative therapies. My intention was to discover if there were any common themes or threads of meaning to be found among the research participants' views and experiences. The research involved interviewing six hundred and forty-six patients of nine alternative therapists. The thesis is framed by an adaptation of Michel Foucault's concept of power/knowledge. The relationship between alternative medicine and orthodox medicine is an important focus for the work. I also wanted to see if an effective hermeneutic approach could be developed as a basis for fieldwork and analysis. I use hermeneutic ideas as the basis for an equitable relationship with the research participants, a relationship which looks for the truth in the research participants' accounts. I take the research participants' accounts of their views and experiences as a text to be interpreted. This thesis provides a source of information regarding patients' views of both alternative and orthodox medicine. This information may be of interest and use to health practitioners in both fields. The fact that so many patients said they had been successfully treated by alternative therapies suggests that orthodox scientific medical theories of healing may have limitations. These limitations may indicate a need to consider, in relation to theories of health and healing, the more holistic view of mind, body and spirit, and the emphasis on measures to maintain good health, that figure so largely in the research participants' accounts.