VIRUS Band 13, pp. 161-170, 2020/07/23
Schwerpunkt: Alternative und komplementäre Heilmethoden in der Neuzeit
This paper discusses the 2013 annual conference of the Austrian Society for the Social History of Medicine, choosing two different angles of approach. On the one hand the article gives a brief overview of the individual talks held at the conference dealing with alternative and complementary medicine from the early modern period to the present. On the other hand it tries to identify common motives and recurring concepts in the conference talks and papers published in this volume. Examples reach from magico-religious phenomena, natural medicine and the strong life reform movement of the fin de siècle to various agents of alternative medicine such as proponents of Cartesianism, Homeopathy or lay-healers. Similarities could be found in the evolution of alternative medical approaches, the recollection of antique dietetics, observed in many cases as well as the intriguing self-concept of many healers.
Keywords: Alternative medicine, complementary medicine, modern age, conference overview, critical analyses
