Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine(s):
History vs. Modernity
International Conference
4-5 November 2016 – Warsaw, Poland
organised by Interdisciplinary Research Foundation

Keynote speaker: Dr. Joana Almeida, University of London
The consumption of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) – a wide range of practices, treatments and technologies that have not been traditionally associated with the public health care system or training of conventional medical practitioners – has attracted much attention as an emerging health care issue in recent years. Practices that include but are not limited to homeopathy, osteopathy, herbal therapy and acupuncture are widely used in many countries: survey findings indicate that, in Europe, North America and other industrialized regions, over 50% of the population have used complementary and alternative medicine at least once (WHO 2003); for instance, in the UK, between seven and eleven percent of people visit CAM practitioners every year (Andrews 2002).

Over the last three decades, the developed countries have been involved in the dynamic process of camisation, the institutionalization of CAM in healthcare and applying CAM treatments and solutions in everyday life (Almeida 2012). This process has been challenging the prevailing healthcare systems and changing relationship between TCAM and the state having the potential to reverse the direction of medicalisation and to encourage demedicalisation.

The conference seeks to explore both the history and the current situation of TCAM in the world. Papers are invited on topics related, but not limited, to:

1) Mind-body interventions:

a) Psychotherapy (psychodynamic, behaviour, cognitive, supportive, body-oriented therapies);

b) support groups;

c) meditation (transcendental meditation, relaxation response);

d) imagery;

e) hypnosis;

f) biofeedback;

g) yoga;

h) dance therapy;

i) music therapy;

j) art therapy;

k) prayer and mental healing;

2) bioelectromagnetics;

3) aternative systems of medical practice:

a) professionalized health systems

traditional oriental medicine (acupuncture, moxibustion, acupressure, remedial massage, cupping, qigong, herbal medicine, nutrition, dietetics)

ayurvedic medicine (individualized dietary, eating, sleeping and exercise programs, including yoga, breathing exercises and meditation);

homeopathic medicine

anthroposophically extended medicine;

naturopathic medicine;

environmental medicine;

community-based health care (shamanic healing, singing, sweating);

urban community-based systems (Alcoholics Anonymous);

popular health care (from informal sources);

4) manual healing methods: physical healing methods (osteopathic medicine, chiropractic, massage therapy).

We invite proposals from various disciplines including medical sciences, history, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, literature, etc.

The language of the conference is English.

Paper proposals up to 250 words and a brief biographical note should be sent by 31 July 2016.