The Concept of Disease

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer provides the relevant background and comparison of general medicine and homeopathic concepts of disease. Further, the writer discusses how their similarities and differences affect the choice of treatment modalities and their effect on the patients involved. The research shows that general medicine concepts of disease relate to dysfunctions in the body that are characterized by specific symptoms that can be diagnosed and treated. In contrast, the research also shows that in homeopathy, practitioners consider disease symptoms as the body's own attempts to heal itself. The writer maintains that in most cases, homeopaths use medicines that mimic the symptoms of the disease but do so in such attenuated amounts that these active ingredients are virtually absent from the prescription with most observers suggesting there is a powerful placebo effect at play. The writer concludes that it would seem reasonable to assert that many general medicine practitioners could take a lesson from their homeopathic counterparts by paying more attention to establishing therapeutic relationships and a rapport with their patients rather than ruling out one possible cause after another without regard to what patients have to say about their personal concepts of the disease involved.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Statement of the Problem
Purpose of Study
Importance of Study
Scope of Study
Rationale of Study
Methodology
Chapter 2: Background and Overview
Chapter 3: General Medicine Concepts of Disease
Chapter 4: Homeopathic Medicine Concepts of Disease
Chapter 5: Summary and Conclusions

From the Paper:

"Christopher Boorse criticizes the idea that health and disease are evaluative concepts. In his view, this relativizing of the concepts leads to absurd consequences. Assume, for instance, that one defines disease in terms of unwanted things which are candidates for medical treatment. He claims that many recognized diseases are not really treatable. On the other hand, practices such as circumcision, termination of pregnancy or plastic surgery are not good reasons for considering the possession of foreskin, being pregnant or having ears that stick out to be diseases. Another possibility is that one invokes pain or suffering as a criterion for calling something a disease; however, Boorse emphasizes as well that medical textbooks frequently describe instances where the absence of subjective discomfort is accompanied by serious internal injury; by contrast, some people tend to experience severe pain and discomfort during entirely normal processes such as menstruation, teething and childbirth."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Baldwin, Peter. (1999). Contagion and the State in Europe, 1830-1930. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Black's Law Dictionary. (1990). St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co.
• Boorse, Christopher. (1977). "Health as a theoretical concept." Philosophy of Science, 44, 542- 73.
• Brown, Jonathan S. (2001). Genetic manipulation in humans as a matter of Rawlsian justice. Social Theory and Practice, 27(1), 83.
• Carlston, Michael and Marc S. Micozzi. (2003). Classical Homeopathy. New York: Churchill Livingstone.

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