• Department of History
• School of Arts, Humanities, and Communications
• Susquehanna University
October 10, 12:45-2:00
Associate Professor of Philosophy Jeffrey P. Whitman
What Price Hope?: The Appeal of Complementary And Alternative Medicine
Serious illness, and perhaps especially a serious chronic illness, often present their sufferers with difficult physical challenges, as well as existential challenges that go to the very core of their being. The physical challenges by themselves can be daunting, involving maladies such as acute pain, motor impairments, sensory deficiencies, incontinence, and shortness of breath, but the challenges to one’s personhood may present the greatest difficulties. The resulting disruption of the individual’s life can furnish the materials for an existential crisis of the highest magnitude, leading to feelings of guilt, depression, and hopelessness. If you add to this mixture of physical and spiritual challenge, the promise of a new cure, or at least significant symptomatic relief for the ill person, you can begin to understand the appeal of complimentary and alternative medicine ( CAM) over conventional medicine. The appeal of CAM is all the more powerful when conventional medical therapies have not provided the patient with a cure, restoration of normal function, or even symptomatic relief. This paper examines the issue of whether or not the hope that CAM provides to individuals is well placed. My own view is that the therapies generally falling under the rubric of CAM are not efficacious, and in some instances may be harmful. Nonetheless, there are a number of lessons that medical professionals and the public they serve can and should learn from the phenomena of CAM, lessons that may do much to improve our understanding of the effectiveness and ends of conventional medicine.
