HLTA02H3 Lecture Notes - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Iatrogenesis, Biomedicine
Document Summary
Popular understandings of health, illness, and healing are shaped by the biomedical culture, often dismissing alternative health care practices. While healers have existed for thousands of years, bio- medicine is unique in the ways it understands the world and generates medical knowledge. The sepa- ration of mind and body is a pivotal difference between newer biomedical and older or alternative medicines. Biomedicine relies on breaking down aspects of the human body into smaller parts to understand the origin of disease. Biomedicine also assumes every disease has its own cause, and the role of medical professionals is to treat the disease, not the person. Biomedical views often see the body as a machine; each part is essential and performs its own unique function. In contrast, many other systems of healing emphasize the wholeness of the body. Finally, biomedicine includes the idea that diseases can be managed by control over one"s body and by following specific regimens.
