The incorporation of visualizations into the western model of health and disease: A manifestation of cultural change

摘要

Over the past twenty years the western model of health and disease has incorporated the practiced of visualizations into its treatment of physical diseases such as cancer and arthritis. Hypothesizing that the inclusion of this practice marked a fundamental change in its conceptual framework to understand health and disease, I traced changes within western medicine, as well as those external to it which I suggest challenged its conceptual framework. Using a research methodology which included a literature search as well as fieldwork, I examined, extensively the western conceptualization of visualization therapy, particularly as it related to cancer and arthritis. My research findings showed that the incorporation of visualizations into medical practices is an expression of cultural change, and that many of these changes have taken place within a context of contestation and competition.