The Politics Of Massage: Alternative Treatment Or Mainstream Therapy?

I tend to view massage therapy independently of broader

categories of therapy, healing or other restorative practices

or systems. I am inclined to do this because I am cautious

about allowing massage to be classified as a traditional

therapy versus an alternative therapy.



There are many practitioners who cringe when they see massage

therapy lumped in with "alternative" practices such as acupuncture, chiropractic or naturopathic health. To some these smack of quackery, fakery or, in some cases, lunacy. I believe that this aversion to association with alternative medical practices is extreme but I concede that a massage therapy purist could develop such a phobia.



On the other hand, more open-minded massage therapists abhor

associating massage exclusively with clinical practices such as

physical therapy or other forms of rehabilitation. There is some

resentment towards the incorporation of massage therapy into

traditional medicine only because they feel that massage may be

viewed as simply a procedure. This view strikes me as a bit

vindictive but given the historical view of the mainstream medical

industry towards the alternative medical community, some

bitterness can be expected.



I would hate to see massage go the way of today's politics

which attempt to label every political view as either liberal or

conservative. Massage therapy is neither traditional nor

alternative. Frankly, traditional medicine is, in actuality,

an "alternative" to massage when viewed in an historical

context.



The first documented description of massage as a technique or

therapy dates back to 3,000 B.C. in China. The Chinese

believed that all illness was due to an imbalance of "Qi" within the

body. The inequitable distribution of this "life force" or "life energy" was blamed for all ailments and this philosophy was absorbed and incorporated by Japanese Buddhist monks into Japanese massage techniques. This eventually evolved into the unique Japanese massage therapy called Shiatsu or "finger pressure."



At the same time, similar approaches were evolving in India,

eventually becoming the practice of Ayurvedic medicine, or

the "arts of life," which also utilized massage as an

instrumental healing methodology. Greeks, Romans and even

Native Americans highly valued not just the therapeutic, but

also the actual healing value of massage. Hippocrates himself

is quoted as stating that "anyone wishing to study medicine

must master the art of massage."



But with the advent of the industrial age and the development

of modern scientific inquiry, massage was relegated to the list

of unenlightened, unsophisticated medical practices. In my

opinion, however, to dismiss the medicinal and restorative

benefits of massage was to dismiss the wisdom of the Ancients.

The lack of modern scientific diagnostic techniques and the

inability to examine the physical being at the cellular level, forced

the earliest physicians to take a macro view of the person since

a micro view was unavailable. That macro view and the knowledge

garnered through the ages is still the essence of the practice of

the ancient art of massage.



That is not to say that the more clinical modern approach to

massage is without merit. On the contrary, contemporary

research has validated many of the formerly unsubstantiated

claims of alternative practitioners. Scientific studies have

confirmed the effectiveness of massage in alleviating some

depressive symptoms, altering the immune system,

controlling pain and reducing stress. As stress is identified

as the precipitator of so many medical problems, physicians

are less reluctant to recommend massage as part of an

overall regime to address certain conditions.



So I echo the plea of Rodney King when he asked, "Can't we

all just get along?" Massage does not need the blessing of the

medical establishment to claim its place among the healing arts,

thank you. Nor is it the exclusive therapeutic domain of the

alternative community. I am comfortable with claims that

massage can benefit the whole person and I welcome the

recognition of the scientific examiners who methodically study

the benefits of touch for healing. But I intend to plant myself

firmly in the middle and surrender to no particular ideology of

massage therapy. I endorse massage for what it does.















Article written by Terry McDermott.























Author Bio::


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Terry McDermott




liberal




political discussion forum




email: simi_hogard@yahoo.com