The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine by Kaptchuk, Ted J - 1983

New York: Congdon & Weed, 1983. 402 Pages Indexed. No defects detected beyond a very slightly concave spine. No marks or stamps and interior text pages are near flawless. Early in the 1970s there appeared a number of descriptions of surgery without anesthesia being performed in China. A technique of acupuncture was used, whereby slender needles pierced the skin and the patient being fully awake during the procedure but not feeling the scalpel. This ancient technique of acupuncture enjoyed a brief surge of popularity in the United States, where it was touted as a new method to induce analgesia. This sudden enthusiasm was quickly followed by a backlash within the medical establishment unable to obtain scientific proof of claims made by acupuncture proponents, was ready to abandon it and forbid its practice in the United States. This attempt was unsuccessful and investigations of the application of acupuncture to Western medicine have continued. The evidence now indicates that acupuncture can induce analgesia and that its use is associated with measurable physiological changes. Recent (1983) medical reviews show that acupuncture is slowly beginning to be integrated into certain areas and has gained some acceptance, the Western medical and scientific community has never considered seriously the medical tradition and culture from which this technique sprang. The problem does not lie entirely with the medical and scientific establishment. Almost none of the traditional Chinese medical texts are available in English, and those that are available make little or no attempt to present the cultural medical tradition in toto. Even translated works pose the problem of a completely unfamiliar approach to disease and a foreign terminology. Only someone familiar with the Chinese language, naturalist and Taoist philosophy, and with Chinese culture as it has been influenced by these philosophies, would be able to comprehend the Chinese medical tradition. The chapters to follow begin an important exposition of the ancient art of Chinese medicine in terms that can be understood by a Western audience. The author has deftly avoided, as much as possible, the pitfall of interpreting Chinese theory through Western terminology, thereby leaving the central Chinese concept of medical patterns and disharmonies undisturbed. For thousands of years the Chinese have observed life processes and relationships between man and his environment. From this observation, the art of Chinese medicine has developed vocabulary and the author presents here The Pinyin Phonetic Alphabet to assist the reader.. First Paperback Edition Stated. Trade Paperback. Near Fine. Illus. by Huntley, Barbara - Book Design. 5 1/2" x 8 1/4".