Soc Sci Med. 1994 Apr; 38(8): 1061-8.

Alternative medicine in the United States.

Wardwell WI.

Department of Sociology, University of Connecticut, Storrs 06268.

Since the term 'alternative medicine' is defined residually as anything not regular medicine, it is not a useful category. It needs further specification in order to facilitate empirical investigation of the many varied types of health practices it denotes: namely, primitive medicine, folk medicine, herbal medicine, homeopathy, chiropractic, naturopathy, faith healing. New Age Healing, etc. The author's earlier classification of health professions into ancillary, limited, marginal, and quasi practitioners offers a fruitful set of categories for investigating relationships between these groups and organized medicine, and the movement of these groups from one status to another. Examples are the evolution of osteopathy from marginal to full acceptance as orthodox, and chiropractic's putative evolution from marginal to a limited medical profession. Within the quasi professional group, further subclassification distinguishes between folk and primitive healers, faith healers, and quacks; also between those who heal using natural forces and those who frankly invoke supernatural forces or entities.