Shen: Psycho-Emotional Aspects of Chinese Medicine

480 Pages·2007·3.41 MB·english

by  Elisa Rossi MD PhD BA

An imprint of Elsevier Limited
© Elsevier Ltd 2007
The right of Elisa Rossi to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without either the prior permis-
sion of the publishers or a licence permitting restricted copying in the United Kingdom issued by the Copy-
right Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Permissions may be sought directly
from Elsevier’s Health Sciences Rights Department in Philadelphia, USA: phone: [phone], fax:
([phone], email: [email protected]. You may also complete your request on-line
via the Elsevier homepage (http://www.elsevier.com), by selecting ‘Customer Support’ and then ‘Obtaining
Permissions’.
First published 2002 ISBN 9780443101816
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Notice
Knowledge and best practice in this fi eld are constantly changing. As new research and experience broad-
en our knowledge, changes in practice, treatment and drug therapy may become necessary or appropri-
ate. Readers are advised to check the most current information provided (i) on procedures featured or (ii)
by the manufacturer of each product to be administered, to verify the recommended dose or formula, the
method and duration of administration, and contraindications. It is the responsibility of the practitioner,
relying on their own experience and knowledge of the patient, to make diagnoses, to determine dosages
and the best treatment for each individual patient, and to take all appropriate safety precautions. To the
fullest extent of the law, neither the publisher nor the editor assumes any liability for any injury and/or
damage.
The
Publisher's
policy is to use
paper manufactured
from sustainable forests
Printed in China
Prelims-F102817.indd iv 2/7/07 11:40:05 PM

Foreword
by Volker Scheid
Chinese medicine in China is referred to as ‘Chinese medicine’ (zhongyi).
Transferred to the West it changes into ‘Traditional Chinese Medicine’ (TCM).
Whence this emphasis on tradition, we might ask? The immediate histori-
cal events surrounding this choice are easy to trace and take us to China in
the 1950s. Charged with promoting their medicine abroad also once it had
been declared a national treasure a group of C hinese translators felt this
might be more easily achieved if the adjective ‘traditional’ was prefixed to the
indigenous designation. The label was accepted – in the main uncritically –
and proved to be a potent force in the promotion of Chinese medicine.
The more important second question is what this judicious assessment of
Western sensibilities says about ourselves and our relationship to Chinese
medicine. I believe that the label ‘TCM’ has been so successful because by
offering a double negation it holds out a treble promise. TCM offers itself up to
be non-Western and non-modern at the same time but also, and this is the cru-
cial point, as somehow universal and therefore more easily acquired by our-
selves. What could be more appealing to Westerners searching for alternatives
to their own way of running the world who do not, when all is said and done,
want to give up their own identity?
In the long run, however, one cannot have one’s cake and eat it. Just as the
rest of the world needed to westernise in order to utilise Western biomedicine,
we will only ever become meaningful participants of the Chinese medical com-
munity by becoming more Chinese. The first step in this direction would be to
let go of the ‘T’ in TCM, to consider it not as an asset but as a problem. And
there are, indeed, many problems associated with being traditional.
Western critics of Chinese medicine, for instance, point out that unlike
science, imagined as progressive and open to positive change, traditional
knowledge is closed, impervious to critique and therefore, of necessity, infe-
rior. Within the Chinese medicine community we face the problem of tradition
in other ways. As we become more familiar with what we assumed to be one
tradition, we discover that it is, in fact, made up of many different traditions,
schools of thought, and lineages of transmission. How should we relate to this
ix
PPrreelliimmss--FF110022881177..iinndddd iixx 22//77//0077 1111::4400::0077 PPMM