The Lost origins of Osteopathy and Chiropractic in European Mechanical Medicine and Physical Education, c. 1800-1950

1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-99010-1
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 322 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Routledge Studies in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine

This book examines the global history of allegedly scientific “mechanical” cures commonly used to combat internal and chronic diseases and explores how and why the professional demarcation between orthodox and irregular medicine evolved.

Now globally dispersed, the systems of osteopathy and chiropractic are considered as unique pieces of therapeutic Americana with no obvious inspirational counterpart found in the Old World. It is their similar monocausal and biomedically strange etiologies that have given them this status, namely that dislocations and subluxations of joints in the spine were the main source of disease. At the end of the 19th century, when osteopathy and chiropractic materialized in the USA, this was a spectacular claim. Notably, the Germ theory had its breakthrough, yet early osteopaths and chiropractors did not recognize it in favor of their dislocations and subluxations. This book presents a new answer regarding what formed their etiologies. Through a combination of many unutilized source materials with novel theoretical and methodical approaches, the systems of osteopathy and chiropractic are traced back and related to a seminal yet overlooked 19th-century European discourse of so-called mechanical medicine, which also permeated the USA.

Shedding new light on the professionalization and gendering of the modern healthcare system, this volume will be of value to students and scholars alike interested in the history of science, technology and medicine.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ottosson, Anders

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1.  The use of History in Professional Conflicts: Some theoretical guidelines 2. Mapping the Professional Historical Dots 3. A manipulated story – Osteopathy, Kellgren, and Mechanical Medicine 4. A new scenario that brings Kellgren, P. H. Ling, and Osteopathy together in late 19th century North America. 5. From the pre-history of Osteopathy: P. H. Ling and Mechanical Medicine in the 19th century

Über Autor(innen)

Anders Ottosson is a senior fellow at the Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg. He has published widely on the history of physical therapy, orthopedics, and physical education. Currently he is doing research on the sick and poor relief offered at spas and health resorts.