J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 1991 Jan; 14(1): 5-13.

The treatment act: an analysis of the clinical art in chiropractic.

Coulehan JL.

Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, PA 15261.

This paper discusses the nature of healing as it applies to the clinical art of chiropractic. General concepts of the phenomenology of illness and healing are developed and then applied specifically toward chiropractic care. The role of metaphor in medicine and chiropractic is discussed; chiropractic may make better use of root metaphor than does the practice of medicine. Finally, the paper discusses certain implications of the clinical art of chiropractic as they relate to teaching and research within the chiropractic profession.