- The Scientific Version of Acupuncture and Acupressure ‘is regarded as working via the nervous system...the concepts of disease are those generally accepted in Western medicine, though with greater than usual emphasis on disorders of function.’ This was the view of Anthony Campbell, writing in his book, Acupuncture in 1987.
Relief from pain is an outstanding benefit and can be partially explained by the fact that the insertion of acupuncture needles into the skin and layers below the skin has been shown to release opium-like substances, although this release is for a short time and does not fully explain the prolonged effects of acupuncture, nor of the effect of pressure of the therapist's hand which can replace the insertion of needles.
Pain may be referred and can then be felt at a site remote from the site of injury and disease. When these areas, called trigger points, are needled or pressed, the pain in the associated painful site is eliminated. The trigger points do not only give rise to pain, they also cause weakness, sweating, tears, dizziness, ear noises and disorders in internal organs. Thus, acupuncture and acupressure offer relief in a great many conditions. They have no serious side-effects although patients may experience some aggravation which, however, does not last long. I accepted the view of Traditional Chinese Medicine that energy is running through certain channels (meridians) and that, situated on these, acupuncture and acupressure points provide opportunities to regulate the flow of the energy. I also accepted Dr. Felix Mann's interpretation according to which radiation occurs, often in more than one direction, from the point which has been known as an acupuncture point. I was able to relieve, for instance, backache, pain during menstruation, headaches, bowel disorders and I combined such treatments with exercises and other forms of Natural Therapy. In addition, I prescribed homeopathic remedies, thus practising holistic medicine.
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sensitivity to acupuncture
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- As in the other branches of holistic medicine, it is essential to judge how sensitive a patient is to a particular form of treatment. Dr. Mann has drawn attention to the great variety of sensitivity to acupuncture. For a strong reactor, only the mildest prick with the needle is indicated. I often use my fingernail instead of a needle to achieve the correct result. In addition, I teach patients a way to do self-massage: after I have used needles which release the tension, massage can keep the parts relaxed.
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my own critical illness
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- Three years ago I suffered numbness and weakness of my legs which made walking painful. I consulted specialists in different branches of medicine, but none could explain my condition nor offer any treatment. I then consulted an osteopath who worked on the fluid that surrounds nerve tissue.
To my delight, his gentle pressure on my neck, head and sacrum relieved the heaviness in my legs and some throbbing in my face and hands. But after subsequent treatments I experienced a marked aggravation which lasted often ten days. Thus, I went on with a search for a cure to my illness which would not involve passive treatment, but activity of my whole being. I discovered the Japanese system of Shiatsu.
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the British school of Shiatsu-Do
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- I became a student of the Foundation Course which meets twice a week from 6.3O to 9.3O p.m. at the British School of Shiatsu-Do for four months. This combines concern with healing techniques with helping students to attain better health and vitality. The treatment liberates the energy that flows through the body. Students feel committed to their teacher and their fellow students. I joined a class, instructed by a qualified Shiatsu practitioner, with another sixteen students. They were all Western, but many had experience of such systems as yoga. Several had taken part in advanced Shiatsu courses, some had already become practitioners, many had the age of my grandchildren, but they accepted me with the stiffness of my body and the rigidity of my professional past. Students treat each other, supervised by the Instructor.
Some students complained to the Instructor that my touch had been intrusive. After some thought I discovered the reason: for over sixty-five years I had examined patients who had taken off their clothes. In Shiatsu, people's bodies are touched while dressed and energy is perceived even before hands have touched the clothes. I had to realise that my medical touch was indeed too heavy and had to be abandoned when acting as a Shiatsu therapist. The spirit of the whole group was friendly and not critical. Further details of Shiatsu will be discussed in my Appreciation of Chinese Medicine.
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my thoughts on the conflict
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- As a Kantian, I had accepted the fact that we have no knowledge of the universe which is a metaphysical enquiry. But I was released from my conflict when I read that ‘the source where yin and yang (the two poles which govern Traditional Chinese Medicine and its application to acupuncture) exist together as one is called Tao and Ki is the energy that initiates the force which is manifested in the these two polarities.’
As I had already understood Tao as a spiritual force, ‘the mother of the world, the source of all things’, I was free to study and to apply an ethic which differed from the Western ethic of Kant. Tao does not recognise two separate realms, one of scientific cognition and the other of spiritual practical freedom.
This joint system is founded on belief in a harmonious world, the human body being a microcosmos that reflects the harmony of the macrocosmos. The energy which I had already accepted as a ‘real force’ which allows harmonious function was further identified as the ‘life force’ in this eastern system. It is not conceived as an Idea in the Kantian sense, but as a real force which patients and practitioners experience during treatment when meridians are touched in the correct places.
The ethical demand which I had found important in Natural Therapy was also accepted by Shiatsu practitioners. Patients are expected to avoid harmful influences such as smoking and drinking too much alcohol. They are encouraged to eat whole foods and exercise plays a prominent part in the healing system. The exercises which I was taught as a student of Shiatsu relieved some of the numbness of my feet.
I was also a patient, treated by an experienced Shiatsu practitioner. When I told him of the combination of heaviness in my legs and throbbing in my face and hands, he immediately connected these divergent symptoms by citing the course of two meridians which join these distant parts of the body. I applied acupuncture needles in certain points of these meridians and experienced some relief.
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counter-arguments
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- It is very difficult for someone like me, who has been brought up in Western scientific medicine to apply Chinese Medicine. Although I had long before realised the weakness of a mechanistic machine-like approach, I still relied on the changes found in different parts of the body as providing the diagnosis, even if I also viewed the body as a whole. In Chinese Medicine, emphasis is placed on the relationship of the different parts. An infection with the shingles virus, for instance, is treated according to the sites of the body where the infection manifests itself. Thus, while greatly in favour of holism, I cannot entirely follow the Chinese version, which includes different appearances of the tongue, the skin and different locations of the same infection as representing different manifestations of wholeness. In any case, I shall have to learn the use of Chinese herbs which are used to cool heat or counteract dampness, all of which are considered aspects of disturbed bodily wholeness.
Another holistic problem arises through the Chinese union of body and mind. Scientific medicine recognises that certain organs are related to emotions, for instance patients who suffer from a heightened activity of their thyroid gland are excitable and cerebral abnormalities account for emotions which includes depression. In Chinese Medicine, parts of the meridians are said to ‘calm the spirit, clearing the brain’, which are related to ‘acute and chronic nervous and psychic disorders’, while at the same time ‘tonifying the ki energy’. One meridian is concerned with ‘emotional balance’ which involves ‘compassion, self-confidence, resolution, a disciplined mind, reliability, creativeness’. This meridian balance is disturbed by ‘being cynical, indulgent in self-pity, being suspicious, critical, having cold human relationships and being creatively unfulfilled’.
Such disturbance calls for attention to the meridian which removes the disturbance and restores the emotional spiritual balance.
I had arrived at a view that emotional disturbances require an ethical orientation, concerned with the person's conscience which judges conduct as morally right or wrong. But in Chinese Medicine such view is not sustained. By correcting the faulty flow of energy, patients can be morally restored and led to creativity.
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my provisional conclusions
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- I am not prepared to abandon True-self Psychotherapy as a distinct form of trying to help patients. If, on the other hand, I discover that Shiatsu treatment has such profound ethical effects, I shall combine the use of Shiatsu with true-self psychotherapy, as I am prepared to use homeopathic remedies that help to correct fear, anxiety, lack of confidence and other human problems.
My use of Shiatsu holistic spiritual, psychological and bodily medicine will depend on the progress which I make as a student of this form of Oriental Medicine. If I learn to experience the flow of energy, I may also help patients with their spiritual, emotional and bodily problems. I accept the Oriental view that the patient's organism has natural self-healing power and I agree that the environment plays an important part in the causation of illness.
On the other hand, I cannot accept the elimination of the self, which includes the patient's and the practitioner's self. I still believe that my personal self and the patient's personal self are fundamental and I cannot envisage a compromise of the Oriental and Occidental points of view. That means that I am not practising the Art of Benevolence which ‘expresses the spirit of medical therapy based on the union of the healer and the patient, (it is) a dialogue between the souls of two living people’, which excludes objectivity.
As I am a Western person and as most of my patients are also Western people, our worlds are not harmonious but are full of conflicts with which we have to cope, realising our ethical freedom, being guided by our conscience. If I continue training in Shiatsu Oriental Medicine, my Western orientation may be modified. I still have to treat patients who live in this disturbed Western world and who cannot be expected to leave it.
In this way, I have continued my work as a psychiatrist, trying to help patients to discover their true selves. Such treatment is valid and is not affected by the different Oriental approach. I test my True-self Psychotherapy on these patients and I feel confident that their response confirms the validity of this ethical, personal True-self Psychotherapeutic approach.
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