Nature's Path

A History of Naturopathic Healing in America
Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4214-1903-9
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 408 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 680 g

An eclectic group of firebrands overcame strong odds to create the naturopathic healing system.

An alternative medical system emphasizing prevention through healthy living, positive mind-body-spirit strength, and therapeutics to enhance the body’s innate healing processes, naturopathy has gained legitimacy in recent years. In Nature’s Path—the first comprehensive book to examine the complex history and culture of American naturopathy—Susan E. Cayleff tells the fascinating story of the movement’s nineteenth-century roots.

While early naturopaths were sometimes divided by infighting, they all believed in the healing properties of water, nutrition, exercise, the sun, and clean, fresh air. Their political activism was vital to their professional formation: they loathed the invasive, depletive practices of traditional medicine and protested against medical procedures that addressed symptoms rather than disease causes while resisting processed foods, pharmaceuticals, environmental toxins, and atomic energy. Cayleff describes the development of naturopathy’s philosophies and therapeutics and details the efforts of its proponents to institutionalize the field. She recognizes notable naturopathic leaders, explores why women doctors, organizers, teachers, and authors played such a strong role in the movement, and identifies countercultural views—such as antivivisection, antivaccination, and vegetarianism—held by idealistic naturopaths from 1896 to the present.

Nature’s Path tracks a radical cultural critique, medical system, and way of life that links body, soul, mind, and daily purpose. It is a must-read for historians of medicine and scholars in women’s studies and political history, as well as for naturopaths and all readers interested in alternative medicine.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cayleff, Susan E

Fachgebiete

• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Geschichte der Medizin
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter One. Following Nature’s Path and Botanic Healing
Chapter Two. Spokes of a Wheel: The Healing Systems of Naturopathy
Chapter Three. “Nature Takes the Right Road”: Naturopathic Philosophy
Chapter Four. Louisa Stroebele Lust, Benedict Lust, and Their Yungborn Sanatorium
Chapter Five. Women, Naturopathy, and Power
Chapter Six. Culture Wars: Ideology, Social Trends, and Competition for Clients
Chapter Seven. Medical Monsters: Vivisection and Vaccination
Chapter Eight. Legal Battles: Democracy or Autocracy?
Chapter Nine. Professionalizing and Defining the Nature Cure
Chapter Ten. Deepening Divides, 1945-1969
Chapter Eleven. The 1970s and Beyond: Cultural Critique and Holistic Health

Über Autor(innen)

Cayleff, Susan E
Susan E. Cayleff is a professor in the Department of Women’s Studies at San Diego State University. She is the author of Wash and Be Healed: The Water-Cure Movement and Women’s Health.