Perspectives on Complementary and Alternative Medicine: a Reader

This book is part of the Open University course ‘Perspectives on Complementary and Alternative Medicine’ and true to the course title it presents a lively and engaging collection of classic, controversial and new contributions on the topic. The chapters in this book have been edited to form a student source of diverse readings on how CAM is developing and being delivered in the UK and other countries. A large number of well-respected authors are represented in this book, including contributions from the British Medical Association. The book is divided into six sections. The first section contextualises CAM within a contemporary setting, section two addresses the nature of the healing relationship, section three relates to the distribution of CAM and its practitioners, and the settings in which the growth of CAM has taken place, section four addresses standardisation, educational and regulatory issues, section five considers CAM from a scientific standpoint and section six addresses CAM in practice, its diversity, integration and development. Overall 43 chapters are contained within the sections, with titles as diverse as the basic concepts of alternative medicine and impact on our views of health, healthcare pluralism in the UK, wholeness and health, homoeopathy, hospitals and high society, quackery and the evidence for or against common complementary therapies. This book provides some insight into many of the current and complex issues surrounding CAM, and will appeal to everyone who is concerned with or who has an interest in complementary and alternative health care. The only criticism is that most texts present relatively isolated chapters and viewpoints, which are not complemented by the respective counterarguments. This bears some potential for misleading the reader.