The holistic health movement in the San Francisco Bay Area: Some preliminary observations

Author(s): Hays, J., McClendon, N., McGoldrick, N., Vespucci, R.

Journal/Book: Soc Sci Med. 1998; 47: The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, England. Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd. 1495-1501.

Abstract: This essay presents a preliminary overview of the holistic health movement in the San Francisco Bay Area. In part drawing upon ethnographic data, it examines the juxtaposition of the drive for professionalization and resistance to professionalization on the part of various alternative healers. It also considers the growing interest of biomedical physicians, corporations and government policy makers in holistic health. Despite the frequent claim that the holistic health movement constitutes a counterhegemonic effort that challenges the basic premises of biomedicine, we argue that the holistic health movement exhibits strong hegemonic attributes in that it tends to offer individualistic solutions rather than social structural ones in addressing health problems.

Note: Article Baer HA, Univ Arkansas, Dept Anthropol & Sociol, Little Rock,AR 72204 USA

Keyword(s): holistic health movement; San Francisco Bay Area; MEDICINE

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