Utilizing the Meaning Response: Naturopathy as Meaning-Based Medicine in the Western Cultural Context
Main Article Content
Abstract
The 'placebo effect' as identified in the Western cultural context is more accurately identified as the 'meaning response.' The meaning response is the unique, human ability to heal through participation in a culturally meaningful healing process. The meaning response makes physiological impacts in the process of meaningful healing, even in cases when the healing paradigm involves biological specificity. Therefore, initiating a meaning response within all healing systems is valuable, even in the Western context, where scientific validation is privileged over meaning-based medicine. In the Western context, meaning-based medicine must appeal to cultural values involving scientific validity and contemporary health concerns. This essay will discuss naturopathy as a culturally relevant, meaning-based medical paradigm within Western culture.
Article Sidebar
Article Details
Articles: USURJ’s current Publication Agreements apply a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (CC-BY-NC) by default. The CC BY-NC license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon work non-commercially. The author(s) can choose a different CC license, as outlined in https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/. Please see the PDF for each article to determine what license is applied to that article. Author(s) can also request to reserve all copyright (All Rights Reserved). If there is no indication for articles published before September 2020, assume the author retains all rights beyond those necessary for publication by USURJ. All articles published after September 2020 will apply one of the aforementioned CC licenses. See the Publication Agreement under the Submission Preparation Checklist or Author Guidelines for more information. Artwork: All copyright for the original artwork remains with the artist unless they wish to apply a Creative Commons (CC) license to the artwork. Please see the PDF for each artwork to determine what license is applied to that artwork.