In the Borderland between Optimization and Healing: Alternative Medicine seen in the Perspective of Medical Enhancement Technologies

Abstract

The increased popularity of alternative medicine has often been explained in terms of disenchantment with a conventional health care system based on imper­sonal practices and with the latter’s failure to cure chronic illness and disability. However, there is some evidence to suggest that users of alternative medicine also make more use of conventional medicine than those who have never used alter­native therapies. Drawing on a user survey including 138 interviews with 46 alter­native therapy clients, the present paper discusses why the growing popularity of alternative medicine does not necessarily involve a rejection of technological pro­cedures in biomedicine. It is argued that the prevalent use of alternative therapies in Western countries can be seen as part of the current striving for self maximi­zation, in which so-called medical enhancement technologies play a central role.