As we have alluded to in past articles the most effective way to create confusion within a profession and ultimately lead to its destruction is to eliminate the use of its characteristic language and replace it with language that contradicts the original intent.
The saying about “barking up the wrong tree” could be relevant here when it comes to a chiropractor’s focus. Is it on the finite or is it on the infinite?
Let me explain.
There is a medical word known as symptom, the Oxford Dictionary definition of which is “A physical or mental feature which is regarded as indicating a condition of disease, particularly such a feature that is apparent to the patient”. This is a finite ‘feature’ that is attributed to a named disease especially if it bugs the patient.
The process of classifying symptoms is an inductive process of breaking the body into systems, parts and lesions. This process is deemed complete when the holy grail is reached, the symptom is classified, named and the world now has another thing to treat – yippee more disease, more doctors, more drugs, more deaths and more money.
Chiropractic, on the other hand pursues a different objective, it tracks along an infinite perspective. Chiropractic notes signs and indicators. The Oxford Dictionary defines a ‘Sign’ as “An object, quality, or event whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else” and an ‘Indicator’ as “A thing that indicates the state or level of something”. Signs and indicators cover many realms from objective reality of the tangible and measurable to the subjective reality of perception and the immeasurable.
Chiropractic embraces the dance between the chiropractor and the person and the multitude of signs and indicators that make up the living matrix of a human being. Rather that indicating a disease the signs and indicators point to the current state of adaptation of the person to the stressors of their environment. This approach is cognisant of the self-regulating nature of life and recognises that symptoms are an intricate component of this regulation – yippee more health, more empowered people, more sustainability, more life and more prosperity for all.
There are two “trees” that we can invest our time and energy in. The Medical “tree” has the role of disease treatment using the finite diagnoses based on symptoms OR The chiropractic “tree” which focuses on the vital signs and indicators of the infinite connectedness of the human experience.
Which Tree Are You Up?
