Holistic Health and the Critique of Western Medicine – Janet McKee (1988)

- “Many social scientists that are critical of western medicine, as it

promotes capital accumulation and the commodification of health,
recognize the potential contribution of the holistic critique of the bio-
reductionism of Western medicine” (McKee, 1988:775).
- “The holistic view of health and illness can contribute to a critique of
Western medicine, and can help to identify how Western medicine
reflects the needs of capital accumulation and commodification” (McKee,
1988:775).

The Sociological Critique of Holistic Health

- Holistic health takes account of the whole (physical, mental,

environmental, social factors).
- Many researchers are critical of this approach as it promotes an
individualist solution to problems of health by “focusing on changing the
individual rather than altering the social structure that promotes an
unhealthful environment” (McKee, 1988:775).
- The “victim-blaming ideology” promoted by the holistic health movement
tends to shift the burden of blame for health problems from the social
system to the individual for maintaining a healthful lifestyle, and thereby
“obscures the social structures that constrain individual behaviour and
lifestyle choices” (McKee, 1988:775).
- “Western critics usually consider holistic therapies and practices to be
unscientific and mystical, or at least unacceptable because they have not
been proven scientific” (McKee, 1988:776).

The Sociological Critique of Western Medicine: How the Western Model Promotes
Capitalism

- Despite scientists focusing on the weakness of holistic health methods

they do “recognize the need for an approach to health that is more
holistic” (McKee, 1988:776).
- “Many researchers explain how the concern for capital accumulation is at
the root of many health problems, and how the medical industry
promotes profit” (McKee, 1988:776).
- “Several researchers explain how the emphasis on germ theory and the
neglect of social determinants of disease have been used to serve the
capitalist system” (McKee, 1988:777).
- “Health problems become problems of the body which require
consumption of some form of technological treatment, rather than
reflections of social relations” (McKee, 1988:777).
- “Old age, for example is labeled a medical problem of degeneration with
age rather than a social problem of poverty and of social definitions of
productivity and human usefulness” (McKee, 1988:777).
- “Forms of social deviance that challenge existing social norms become
medicalised as mental illness, and consumption of medical technology is
prescribed” (McKee, 1988:777).
 - “Navarro explains how this “need for consumption”, consumption that
reflects a dependency of the individual on something that can be bought,
either a pill, a drug, a prescription…is required and promoted in
capitalism” (McKee, 1988:777).
- “Germ theory provides a framework that promotes technology as the
solution to disease, since technology is required to produce antibiotics,
vaccines and other drugs to combat pathogens” (McKee, 1988:777).
- “Technology and drugs are promoted for the purpose of profit at the
expense of health needs, health suffers” (McKee, 1988:777).
- “Western Medicine – particularly germ theory – serves the capitalist
system, which is based on profit at the expense of health needs: (1) by
obscuring the social determinants of illness, and (2) by promoting
treatment that serves capital accumulation and the commodification of
health needs” (McKee, 1988:777).

The Model of Naturopathy

- “The view provides a systems approach to health according to which all

parts of the system (body, mind, spirit, environment, society) are
interrelated and interact in such a way as to promote balance within the
system. Illness reflects an imbalance between the individual and the
wider world. (McKee, 1988:777).
- “Underlying naturopathy is the doctrine of vitalism, a vital force which
acts independently of physical forces”. This force, according to
naturopathic theory promotes harmony and homeostasis, even in illness,
which is an adaptive response to unnatural conditions. The vitalist
assumption is contrary to the depiction by Western, scientific medicine of
the body as a helpless machine. (McKee, 1988:778).
- “The naturopathic view of illness as a process or activity initiated by the
body in adaptive response to an unnatural environment challenges the
western view of disease as malfunction” (McKee, 1988:778).
- “Allopathic treatments (drugs, surgery, radiation) directed at elimination
of symptoms suppress the healing activity of the body” (McKee,
1988:778).
- Naturopathy does not “facilitate the commodification of health…does not
provide as great potential for the mass sale of drugs and other forms of
treatment” (McKee, 1988:778).
- “Naturopathic therapies do not treat diseases but treat the person by
stimulating the individuals vital force. These therapies are directed at
cleansing, detoxification and regeneration” (McKee, 1988:778).
- “These therapies also assign the major responsibility of health to the
individual, lowering dependence on medical personnel, drugs and other
medical treatments. In identifying the source of disease in unnatural toxic
conditions, the naturopathic view has the potential to identify the extent
to which disease results from the production and consumption of
unhealthful and toxic products that are promoted in the interest of profit”
(McKee, 1988:778).

The Holistic Model of Homeopathy

 - “The method of treating a disease by drugs, given in minute doses, that
would produce in a healthy person symptoms similar to those of the
disease” (McKee, 1988:778).
- “The substance or drugs prescribed by homeopaths have far less potential
for the promotion of profit and dependence on drug companies than
those prescribed by allopaths” (McKee, 1988:779).
- “With homeopathic treatment, there is less potential for control by drug
companies than with allopathic treatment, since homeopathic remedies
are rarely harmful if incorrectly prescribed and are not associated with
side effects. Homeopathy poses a potential threat to the monopolistic
position of medical doctors, drug companies and other agents of the
profitable medical industry because it is based on experiential-
observational practice” (McKee, 1988:779).

Holistic Health Versus Western Medicine Divergent Paradigms

- “Holistic therapies are directed not at elimination of the symptom, but at

stimulation of the vital force, which is manifested in the symptom (McKee,
1988:780).
- “Acupuncture is not easily explained in the terms of Western scientific
medicine, the West has been very slow in accepting it, and has largely
attributed the effect to the placebo effect” (McKee, 1988:781).

Conclusion

- “The holistic approach may expand our understanding of the extent to

which Western medicine is a social construct which reflects the needs of
the capitalist society” (McKee, 1988:782).
- “Much of the growing popularity of the holistic health movement is due to
factors as desperation in the face of illness and dissatisfaction with
Western medicine and doctor patient relationships” (McKee, 1988:782).
- “Social analyses focus on the need for prevention and for elimination of
the social determinants of disease, but they do not, for the most part,
seriously challenge the western scientific view of the body, or provide an
alternative to this view” (McKee, 1988:782).
- “Holistic medicine contains elements that can help to force a strong anti-
capitalist peoples health movement” (McKee, 1988:783).