Psychologies – East and West Seminar: January 1976

In the West today, there is increasing concern with the humanistic and psychosocial aspects of medicine, as well as the promotion of holistic and ecological perspectives.

While the outstanding achievements of modern medicine are known to all of us—the control of infectious diseases, development of surgical procedures and biomedical technology, and the management of diseases in the hospital setting—these advances have resulted largely from a Western emphasis on analytic techniques and technical solutions to problems of health and disease.

Systems of medicine such as Chinese, Tibetan, Yogic, American Indian, and various folk traditions have developed with different specializations and concerns including valuable health-oriented and environmental perspectives. An open-minded, yet critical, examination of these different approaches may reveal methods which can complement our current medical effort. For instance, ancient insights on the capabilities for human self-regulation, when combined with scientific medicine, may provide techniques which enable individuals to take more active roles in their own health care.

There is now an opportunity to broaden the base of medicine to include those elements of ancient medicine that are appropriate to our culture and current health needs. This weekend symposium presents speakers who are part of this emerging trend to establish a more effective and complete system of health care.

Faculty

DAVID E. BRESLER, Ph.D., is the Director of the Acupuncture Research Project, UCLA School of Medicine, and Assistant Adjunct Professor of Anesthesiology and Psychology at UCLA. His research interests include acupuncture as well as the clinical effectiveness of relaxation therapy, meditation and hypnosis in selected disorders. In addition to his scientific articles on acupuncture and psychosomatic medicine, Dr. Bresler is co-author of the textbook, Acupuncture for Control and Management of Pain.

RENE DUBOS, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Environmental Biomedicine at the Rockefeller University. His early research included work on the development of antimicrobial drugs and more recently he has been studying the effects that environmental forces—physicochemical, biological, and social—exert on human life. Dr. Dubois is the author of over twenty books including The Mirage of Health; Man Adapting; Man, Medicine and Environment; So Human an Animal; and Beast or Angel: Choices that Make Us Human.

PHILIP R. LEE, M.D., is Director of the Health Policy Program and Professor of Social Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. His is former Assistant Secretary for Health in H.E.W. and former chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco. His research areas include health manpower, prescription drugs, bioethics, and medical education, and his books include the co-authored Pills, Profits and Politics and a forthcoming book on health manpower policy and primary care.

DOROTHEA C. LEIGHTON, M.D., is a former Professor and Chairman of the Department of Mental Health, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina. Her background in social psychiatry, public health, medical anthropology, and the ecology of human health includes field work with the Navaho, Zuni, Eskimos and Yoruba of Africa and her publications include the co-authored books The Navaho, and The Character of Danger: Psychiatric Symptoms in Selected Communities.

RENALDO J. MADURO, Ph.D., is Research Psychologist, Program in Medical Anthropology, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco. With a background in psychological anthropology, clinical psychology, and fine arts, he is at present in private practice and in psychoanalytic training at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. His research, teaching and publications include the areas of ethnopsychology, comparative folk psychotherapies, Latino dream analysis, and symbolic healing.

ROBERT E. ORNSTEIN, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Medical Psychology with the Institute for the Study of Human Consciousness at the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, the University of California, San Francisco. His research interests include the psychology of meditation, biofeedback of EEG asymmetry, and the conscious functions of the two hemispheres of the brain. Dr. Ornstein is author ofThe Psychology of Consciousness, editor of The Nature of Human Consciousness, and co-author of On the Psychology of Meditation.

DONALD F. SANDNER, M.D., is a training analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco and in private practice of psychiatry. Over the past eight summers he has done field studies with Navaho medicine men and is currently writing a book on symbolic healing.

DAVID SHAPIRO, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine and is President-Elect of the Society for Psychophysiological Research. His principal research includes the psychophysiology of stress, biofeedback and hypertension, and he is an editor of the forthcoming Consciousness and Self-Regulation: Advances in Research.

DAVID S. SOBEL, Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge, is a Fellow in the Health Policy Program and a student in medicine at the University of California in San Francisco. He is the editor of the forthcoming book Ways of Health which deals with the subjects and perspectives presented in this symposium.

ILZA VEITH, Ph.D., is Professor and Vice-Chairman of the Department of the History of Health Sciences and Professor of the History of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco. In addition to her numerous publications on the history of medicine and psychiatry, Dr. Veith has written about the history and philosophy of Far Eastern medicine including Medizin in Tibet, Acupuncture Therapy: Current Chinese Practice, and a commentary and translation of the ancient Chinese medical text, The Yellow Emperor’s Classic Internal Medicine.

The Program

Saturday, January 24 Morning

9:00–10:15 HOLISTIC APPROACHES IN ANCIENT AND CONTEMPORARY MEDICINE
DAVID S. SOBEL
A new willingness is emerging within modern medicine to reconsider some of the ancient systems of healing in light of contemporary science and present-day health needs. An overview will be presented on how such study can serve to complement and extend our understanding of medicine as a scientific and humanistic endeavor. Some of the problems and promise associated with the theoretical and practical integration of traditional systems of medicine will also be considered.

10:30–11:30 THE FRONTIERS OF HEALTH CARE
PHILIP R. LEE, M.D.
Notwithstanding the notable advances in biomedical technology and the treatment of acute illness, the major determinants of health still lie outside of the scope of contemporary medical care, namely environmental factors and personal health behaviors. What is the contemporary disease burden and what are the most effective and promising strategies for redirecting our medical effort to meet current health needs?

11:30–12:00 MYSTERY AND MAGIC IN MODERN MEDICINE
DOROTHEA C. LEIGHTON, M.D.
In spite of the widespread belief in the ultimate power of scientific medicine over all diseases, there are many examples which indicate that scientific treatment is more or less effective depending upon the presence or absence of certain non-specific, interpersonal, and human factors. The therapeutic importance of the placebo effect, suggestion and other psychosomatic and social factors in healing will be discussed and illustrated.

Afternoon

1:30–2:45 THE ECOLOGICAL VIEW OF HEALTH
RENE DUBOS, Ph.D.
At the turn of the century, medical sciences became identified with the study of simpler and simpler systems, in which all variables can be controlled. Many achievements of modern medicine have come from this approach. The pioneers of scientific medicine had emphasized, however, that the states of health and disease are the outcomes of the interplay between the organism as a whole and the total environment; for example, faith healing and voodoo death are real phenomena that are influenced by the social atmosphere. How the study of such complex phenomena can be directed into the channels of present scientific orthodoxy will be discussed.

3:00–4:00 CURANDERISMO: LATIN AMERICAN FOLK HEALING
RENALDO J. MADURO, Ph.D.
Latino patients frequently have an elaborate belief system and set of expectations of what constitutes illness and treatment which is based upon a well-differentiated and coherent world view of Latino folk healing systems. Knowledge and appreciation of this cultural dimension can help facilitate more effective, ethos-syntonic treatment procedures. Such study can also provide useful insight into the nature of the healer-patient relationship and the psychosocial factors involved in healing.

4:00-5:30 NAVAHO INDIAN MEDICINE AND MEDICINE MEN
DONALD F. SANDNER, M.D.
Among the Navaho people numerous medicine men are still practicing their traditional healing ceremonies, called chants or sings. The basic attitudes, beliefs, and techniques of the medicine men will be described and illustrated with slides. Also the underlying principles and structure of this complex, subtle and effective symbolic healing system will be analyzed and their relevance to modern psychiatric medicine evaluated.

Sunday, January 25 Morning

9:00–9:45 THE TIBETAN ART OF HEALING
ILZA VEITH, Ph.D.
Because of Tibet’s remoteness and inaccessibility, little is know about its medical concepts and practices of healing. However, recent findings make it possible to share the essence and significance of the predominantly monastic training systems and medical practices. Furthermore, the influence of Arabic and Chinese medicine on Tibet as well as the contribution of Yogic thought to the Tibetan concepts of the structure and function of the human body will be illustrated.

9:45–11:00 CHINESE MEDICINE AND ACUPUNCTURE: THEORY, PRACTICE AND RESEARCH
DAVID E. BRESLER, Ph.D.
Following a review of the history and traditional practice of acupuncture, Dr. Bresler will present the recent clinical research on the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of acute and chronic pain, asthma, sensorineural deafness, and compulsive disorders (e.g. obesity, alcoholism). Contemporary theoretical explanations of acupuncture and the potential implications of acupuncture for the future practice of medicine will be discussed.

11:15–12:30 MEDITATION AND SELF-REGULATORY THERAPIES
ROBERT E. ORNSTEIN, Ph.D.
The practices of meditation, while seemingly diverse, often have a common basis: restriction of attention to an unchanging source of stimulation. The result of meditation is common, as well – alpha EEG’s and a physiological pattern of relaxation. Current research and theories will be discussed, and the implications of human self-regulation for health care assessed. The relationship of meditation to currently derived practices such as progressive relaxation, autogenic training, and biofeedback will be developed.

Afternoon

2:00–3:45 BIOFEEDBACK: CLINICAL APPLICATIONS
DAVID SHAPIRO, Ph.D.
Western science has only recently begun to explore the possibilities for training the voluntary control of internal physiological and mental states. Scientific studies of ancient yogic techniques as well as the development of biofeedback technology that provides objective measurement of bodily activities represent a major breakthrough in the area of psychosomatic research of mind-body self-regulation. The clinical applications of biofeedback in hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, headache, epilepsy, and muscle retraining and the implications for preventive medicine and health maintenance will be evaluated.

4:00–5:30 HOMEOSTASIS AND CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS
RENE DUBOS, Ph.D.
Human life is shaped by three different classes of determinants: the fundamental characteristics of Homo sapiens inscribed in the genetic code; the environmental forces each person experiences which evoke adaptive responses; and the human ability to choose among alternative courses of action. The most important aspects of adaptation are not the homeostatic responses-which are essentially passive-but the creative responses that depend upon the deliberate choice of surroundings and conscious cultivation of one’s potentialities.