Using the structural, historical and cultural dimensions of the sociological imagination, identify the critical issues that relate to how western medicine has responded to the challenge of alternative medicine.

        In the past health was closely linked to the religious sphere. The application of traditional remedies was often accompanied by religious interventions such as prayers and meditation. In those days, there was a holistic approach to treating patients which meant that mind and body were closely interlinked. Western medicine is a comparatively recent form of medicine, emerging only over the past three hundred years. Even though alternative medicine has been around much longer than this, it’s only been since the 1970’s that there has been a growing interest in the use of alternative medicine therapies. In response to this rise in the use of alternative medicine, there have been structural changes in the medical industry. One response by western medicine is the exclusion of alternative medicine. For example, In Australia, alternative medicines lack registration or legal licensing. Another response to alternative medicines is limiting their use. For example, the World Health Organization has stated that acupuncture is useful for only forty conditions. It also states that acupuncture is useful for mild pain relief and that doctors who perform acupuncture can receive a Medicare rebate, thus showing how alternative medicine is starting to get incorporated into mainstream medical practice. The registration of chiropractics and osteopaths and the attempts of large pharmaceutical companies to patent herbal remedies show how there has been structural changes within western medicine, further emphasizes this incorporation. Even so, the simplification of acupuncture to analgesic needling allowed western medicine to reduce acupuncture to a mechanism that could be explained in terms of the pain-gate theory, thus subordinating alternative medicines.

        It can therefore be seen that there is a changing perception of health within the public towards a holistic approach to care, rather than just a curative approach. It’s this changing perception to health and illness that has seen a recent rise in the use of alternative medicine. Western medicine has responded to this rise by excluding, limiting, subordinating and incorporating the use of alternative medicine into mainstream medicine into a narrower framework. Having said this, it appears as though the growing interest into alternative medicine will continue to rise, unless there are drastic changes in the culture of mainstream medicine.