The main difference between Anthroposophic medicine and
conventional medicine is that it doesn't only look for the illness in the
person, but rather the person in the illness. The diagnostic procedures and the
symptoms observed therein may be identical, but a holistic interpretation can
lead to different treatments being recommended, or conventional therapies
being supplemented by additional measures.
Medicine based purely on material science is limited to
explaining an illness solely on the basis of the laws of physics and
chemistry. Anthroposophic medicine is more ambitious. It takes into account
additional factors, both general and individual, that may affect the patient's
life, mind, and soul, and their physical manifestation; in growth, regeneration,
microcirculation, fluid retention in the skin, muscle tone, biorhythms, heat
distribution, posture, uprightness, gait, mental focus, speech. When illness
occurs, examination of the above may reveal deviation, imbalance, and extremes
— additional diagnostic parameters that need to be considered when selecting a
therapy. Anthroposophic medicine also has a different understanding of the role
played by the patient in overcoming illness. The patient is not simply a
passive recipient of medical skill, but an equal partner with the doctor. After
all, nobody can know the patient better than the patient. During an illness,
the patient has the opportunity to recognize the state of imbalance body and
soul have reached, to understand this and rectify it. The illness can provide
an opportunity to learn new modes of behavior, to develop further insights and
acquire greater maturity.
Anthroposophic doctors offer the patient support during
this process. They strengthen patient autonomy, recognize patient
responsibility, and promote the patient's right to involvement in the selection
of an appropriate therapy.
Excerpted with permission from Anthroposophic Medicine: Its
Nature, Its Aims, Its Possibilities, Annette Bopp, Hamburg and Dr. Jurgen
Schurholz, Filderstadt (Germany), published by the Medical Section, School of
Spiritual Science, Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland.