"The Chinese method is based on the idea that no single part can be understood except in its relation to the whole. A symptom, therefore, is not traced back to a cause, but is looked at as part of a totality. If a person has a complaint of symptom, Chinese medicine wants to know how the symptom fits in to the patient's entire being and behavior."
The Web That Has No Weaver- Understanding Chinese Medicine by Ted J. Kaptchuk, O.M.D.
The above quote obviously refers to Chinese medicine, but in actuality refers to all wholistic medicine. When we think of the term medicine, we usually think of chemistry as so much of western medicine revolves around pharmaceuticals, but much of eastern medicine is about other health care practices and lifestyle as well. Ayurvedic medicine, the natural medicine of India, is a system life practices, not just a collection of natural pharmaceuticals. The very word can be translated as "Life Knowledge". Rolfing, very much like Osteopathic medicine, is based more on physics than it is on chemistry, and they are both more concerned with how the parts interact with the whole than they are with what caused the problem with the parts. Just like eastern medicine, they are a Wholistic approach.
A practitioner of Eastern medicine may see multiple clients for the same range of symptoms and recognize different causes for those symptoms. A western doctor may see three clients with the same range of symptoms and diagnose them all with a flue, and therefore, prescribe the same treatment for all of them. A practitioner of Chinese medicine may see the same patients and conclude that all three client's flue symptoms originated from different system imbalances and should therefore be treated differently. The Chinese practitioner may not disagree with the western doctors diagnosis, but may conclude that it is not the most relevant aspect of the problem. What system imbalance led to them contracting the flue in the first place is the question that arises?
Western science operates on cause and effect, primarily because it is based on Western philosophy, which is also primarily based on cause and effect. I know that it is easy to say to yourself that western science is based on empirical observation, and is therefore totally objective, but the fact is that Western science is a subset of Western philosophy, which was once known as Natural Philosophy. So let that since in- what we call science is a subset of philosophy, philosophy is not a sub-discipline of science. Yes, it may be true that the scientific method is the most objective approach that we know of, but what we choose to investigate, the questions asked, and even the interpretations that we come across are all viewed through the lens that we live in a cause effect universe, in which time is linear and all things have a beginning, therefore a cause, and an ending.
In Western religion, the cause is plainly stated, the universe comes into being because a creator willed it to do so. Scientists later simply dropped the creator and proposed a big bang, and idea which did not need a creator, but one could be added if you had a religious bias. The interesting thing is now, scientists are questioning the big bang, as we have detected background radiation that appears to be older than the established age of the universe and the big bang. Now even physics is beginning to question our point of view.
So what would it be like to view something differently? Eastern medicine is based on Eastern philosophy, and therefore does not consider cause and effect to be the primary issue in most scenarios. Yes, Ayurvedic, and Traditional Chinese Medical practitioners do consider cause and effect, but the matrix or system that it takes place in are more important factors than chasing down and combating the pathogen that may have caused an issue. There is an important idea in Buddhist philosophy known as Dependent Origination, the belief that nothing exist independent of anything else, and that includes cause and effect. The beginning arises simultaneously with what is created, and the existence of each mutually depend on one another. Cause and effect are mutually dependent.
Western philosophy sees multiplicity where Eastern philosophy sees unity, and the course of treatment will reflect that. If a western trained doctor sees a client who has multiple diagnoses, then multiple treatments for what are often viewed as multiple
separate issues will follow. For example, if a patient is diagnosed with eczema, lupus, and fibromyalgia, and there have been no studies to strongly suggest such issues are related, that patient will wind up with three different and likely unrelated treatment strategies, and we can probably be sure that much of it will be pharmaceuticals. The doctor may tell the patients that those three issues are totally unrelated and should all be addressed with different medications, and because the doctor believes this, may ignore any indication that this may not be so. I imagine that many patients in this situation may go home asking themselves "how could all of these problems not be related" if they started around the same time?
Rolfing is a western system addressing structural issues and how they apply to movement. Its wholistic view of the body does put it in a unique category for a modern Western approach. Just like other modern Western systems, we acknowledge cause and effect, but that is not the end of the inquiry. If someone gets into an auto accident, hurts their lower back, and goes in to see a Rolfer for it years down the road, the accident is no longer the cause of the problem. That was in the past. Now the problem is a disorganization of the relationship between multiple structures, and their relationship to the whole. If the original result of the accident was a herniated disk in the lumbar veritable, now we are looking at the rotation of the hips, the tilt of the pelvis, and how the feet and legs may be effecting an uneven gait that allows strain and shock to reach the lower back. What about the movement of the shoulders and arms when walking? Are they pulling on the hips and lower back due to restricted range of motion? Are the shoulders and the neck hanging forward, requiring more strength and struggle than necessary to hold them up? Is that putting extra strain on the vertebrae of the upper back which in turn puts strain on the lower back? To most Rolfers, any issue is a full body issue and all parts should be addressed with the whole in mind.
Do you have arthritis, spondylosis, a herniated disk? Well, if you are over 27 then join the club. The majority of people in the world have these problems as they mature into adulthood. Why don't you hear more about it? Because a good many of them don't even know about it, even Olympic athletes. Many people's systems are organised enough to manage it, and may have no perceptible symptoms. Just because you have an issue does not mean you are going to have pain. And if your body is still the self-correcting self-organizing system that it is meant to be, then no perceptible problems. But many of us have issues that have lead to other issues, and now we have problems that perpetuate other problems, in short we have baggage. We have faith, based on experience as Rolfers, that given some help with the excess baggage, we can begin to travel through life with less pain and suffering, and our systems can again become more self reliant, self organizing and self regulating, all we usually need to some well intended attention.
Both the mainstream scientific approaches and the wholistic are necessary, they can inform one another. There are many issues wholistic medicine does not address well, but the same can be said of Western medicine as well. The important thing for all disciplines is to try to think outside the box sometimes, and encourage patients to explore and experiment with new things when the old things are not working. Western doctors are becoming more open minded to alternative treatment as time goes on. Eighty years ago, even physical therapists were not taken seriously. Now we even encounter doctors that are trained in both Eastern and Western medicine. So the important thing is to be attentive to your body, keep and open mind, and don't give up!
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