| What is a useful definition of a complete therapeutic | | | | Arabs during the European "Dark Ages." Although |
| system? It may be described as a system based on | | | | that tradition seems never to have included some of |
| an all-encompassing philosophy or set of beliefs and a | | | | the methods and much of the philosophy and |
| comprehensive range of treatments, therapics, and | | | | terminology we think of as peculiarly Oriental, it |
| remedies. Until very recently most people in | | | | included almost everything else. |
| industrialized Western countries would have | | | | Most important, it included all the elements of body, |
| considered conventional Western medicine just such | | | | mind, and emotions that are now seen as vital to any |
| a self-contained system, and in a way it is. But | | | | system of medicine that claims to be complete, and |
| developments that have taken place over the last 20 | | | | a common thread seems to run through many of the |
| years, particularly the growing interest in the | | | | systems described in the following section. They all |
| traditional Oriental systems of healing, have changed | | | | incorporate principles from the same ancient source. |
| that. | | | | For example, both homeopathy, which was founded |
| Western medicine of the future may well incorporate | | | | bv the 18thÂcentury German doctor Samuel |
| some of the traditions of the rich and varied systems | | | | Hahnemann, and anthroposophical medicine, started |
| that have survived for centuries in India, China, Japan, | | | | by the 19thÂcentury Austrian philosopher Rudolf |
| and Arabia. | | | | Steiner, owe most of their basic ideas to the |
| Introduction To Western Systems | | | | practices and principles of ancient Greece and the |
| Though few people in the West know it, a complete | | | | Orient. |
| system of healing did manage to survive the | | | | Homeopathy is now a major part of naturopathic |
| onslaught of Western science that came with the | | | | medicine in most countries where naturopathy is |
| Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries. It | | | | established (although there is a case for it being seen |
| was called "Nature Cure" at first and, later, | | | | as a complete system in its own right) while |
| "naturopathy," and today it is thriving. | | | | anthroposophical medicine, hugely influential in the |
| But what still fewer people realize is that modern | | | | 1920s and 1930s (and still popular in parts of Europe |
| naturopathy descends directly from that tradition of | | | | and the United States), has largely been absorbed by |
| complete systems of medicine learned by the Greeks | | | | newer and more accessible systems. |
| from the Orient, and passed to the West by the | | | | |