Srisamarth Kolnati

Western Medicine and the Soul

Started Mar. 2, 2022

Abstract or project description

Throughout the history of medicine, there has been a paradigm of cultures holding the soul in high regard. In Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM), it was qi. In Ayurvedic medicine, it was the chakras. Almost all civilizations held the soul to a standard of importance just as high as the body. In fact, for most of western history, people thought that homeostasis would only be maintained in the body by ensuring the unity between the body and the soul, which was common among the ideologies of the time. However, due to the scientific revolution, western medicine started to deviate from this ideology and became focused solely on the body. Becoming further"westernized" in their thinking, healthcare in the west began to be focused more on the body as medical professionals started to reject this traditional way of thinking and focus on only what they could see in the material world. This deviation from the traditional thinking had a great impact on healthcare across the world. On one hand, modern medicine is able to cure ailments and diseases in record time and with much efficency. However, one must ask themself if this is truly worth the erasure of culture and maybe even the key to future medical innovations.