Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Vol 89, Issue 11 651-653, Copyright © 1996 by Royal Society of Medicine
ORIGINAL ARTICLES |
N Koutouvidis, E Papamichael and A Fotiadou
Department of History of Medicine, University of Athens Medical School, Greece.
The miraculous cure of the blind god Plutos ("Wealth') in Aristophanes' play illuminates some of the reasons why people have sought help in alternative medicine over the ages. Apart from limitations of conventional medicine these factors can be social, political, religious, psychological, and scientific. Alternative medicine may function in a complementary way to the conventional. Nevertheless, an overestimation of its therapeutic potentials by the public can lead to the domination of irrationalism, all in the name of liberation from the shackles of a mechanistic rationalism.
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