HLTA02H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Immunology, Biomedical Sciences, Biomedicine
Chapter 8: Modern Biomedical Culture
Introduction
•We are born into a society that positions biomedicine at the top of the healing/medical
hierarchy"
•Our culture downplays alternative HC practices and belief systems about health and illness"
•Popular understanding of health, illness and healing are shaped by the biomedical culture "
•Biomedical science has become the primary basis of Western understandings of health and
illness "
•Biomedicine changed the cultural landscape of our society"
The Rise of Biomedicine
•Differences bw old and new medical cultures "
•Modern medicine knows more about the body, the origins of disease and the course of
treatment vs ancient medicine "
•Major difference bw biomedicine and the “old” type of medicine lies in the way biomedicine
understands the world and generates medical knowledge "
•Biomedicine—a system of healing that views illness as a biological manifestation affecting
the individual. It relies upon ideas of mind-body dualism, physical reductionism, and specific
etiology. It is considered the most legitimate form of healing by most western governments
and citizens "
•Mind-Body Dualism—theory postulated by Rene Descartes—17c French Philosopher;
stating that the mind and body are two separate, discrete entities "
•Body represents the physical matter of an individual "
•Mind is the non-physical entity that provides us with the ability to think, feel, and
comprehend the world"
•Assumption that the mind and body were two discrete entities encouraged medical doctor
to focus exclusively on the physical body when trying to identify and treat disease "
•Psychosocial factors of illness were consequently removed from the process of diagnosis
and treatment—essentially ignoring the SDOH"
•This separation is one of the pivotal differences bw the old and new medical sciences"
•Separation also helps to distinguish bw biomedicine and complementary and alternative
medicine "
•In order for “old” medicine to understand the progression of illness, practitioners focused on
the individuals soul, their willingness to recover and psychosocial factors that contribute to
illness —-hippocrates and Galen both subscribed to these theories——“old” often
emphasized the healing power of faith and religion"
•Biomedical culture—focused sole attention on the body—its anatomy, biophysical processes
and its aliments "
•Physical Reductionism—the act of analyzing a physical entity in light of its smallest parts
( an approach to studying a phenomenon by breaking it into smaller parts)"
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