West Coast History of Science Society Meeting
University of California, San Francisco
April 11th - April 14th, 2002[Program]
Beyond Mirage and Magic Bullets: Redefining Health in the 1960s"Eric Boyle
UCSB History of Science ProgramExamining the relationship between medicine and society in 1959, Rene Dubos perceptively noted in his "Mirage of Health" that, "while searching for magic bullets continues, other studies are revealing that the environment in which the individual lives and his manner of living are of great importance in determining his susceptibility to disease in modern times." While Dubos did not deny the value of scientific medicine in defining these factors in the environment and the types of behaviors that constitute threats to health, he did concede that "to fulfill its potentialities it may once more need the help of bold amateurs willing to use empirical methods based on philosophical, humanitarian, and aesthetic beliefs." The prescience of Dubos becomes clear when the relationship between alternative and conventional medicine is examined in the 1960s. As a self-conscious shift in focus within conventional biomedicine and its epidemiological studies occurred in the 1960s, incorporating a more social and environmental approach to health care, a concurrent movement toward a holistic conception of health was offerred by critics of orthodoxy. My paper will explore the relationships between these developments and the consequences for health care delivery.