Publisher's Synopsis
There are quacks and charlatans on both sides of the orthodox/alternative medicine divide, yet there are therapeutic practices which are undeniably beneficial on both sides as well, argues Dew. For him, the problem becomes the ways in which these practices are validated and regulated, encompassing questions of access to state funds, who has the right to control particular techniques, what standards are used to provide legitimacy, and other conundrums. He argues that alternative therapies are being subsumed by a philosophy of rationalism that promotes a particular orthodoxy that limits the accepted claims and practices of alternative medicines in New Zealand.
