In fact, in 1976 Ivan Illich, a guru of the counterculture, argued that Western medicine had reached a watershed and had become a major threat to health.
In the early 1970s President Richard Nixon began "Ping-Pong diplomacy," which helped draw attention to Eastern philosophies. Publicity regarding the failures of Western medicine, with its drugs and technology, added to the public's cynicism. (The thalidomide scare of the early 1960s exemplified this situation.) At the time, a number of countries in Europe joined in a project called the European Council of Science and Technology to examine the potential of alternative medicine. The United States also opened the Office of Alternative Medicine for funding purposes.
Many therapies in alternative medicine are holistic, emphasizing the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the whole person. Some of the treatments are preventive, stressing good health practices.
Background
To understand alternative medicine, one must look at traditional Chinese medicine and the Indian system of Ayurvedic medicine. In these philosophies, the body is treated as a whole. It is a unity, but one also affected by outside forces. In Indian medicine, the body interacts not just with the physical environment, but also the social structure, changing mental needs, and the accumulated karma of the soul that inhabits it.
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