The Eastern Cultural Signature of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Empirical Evidence and Theoretical Perspectives
Traditional
Chinese medicine (TCM) is a complete and independent medical system, which has
been used to diagnose, treat, and prevent illnesses for thousands of years. Holistic
thinking, which is rooted in Eastern culture, is assumed to be the core of
traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In recent decades, such holistic thinking
has been proposed to be applicable to Western medicine practices for
alleviating serious side effects; however, the obscure and often ill-defined
terms of TCM, such as qi, yin yang, and wuxing,
pose considerable obstacles for further understanding TCM. In the present
study, the authors explored whether and how TCM was actually related to the
scientific construct of holistic thinking, to elucidate the particular cultural
signature of TCM.
In this study, a random sample of 101 college students majoring in TCM and 93
non-medical college students was recruited for the study. Two psychological
scales—the Chinese Holistic Thinking Scale (CHTS) and the TCM Competence Scale (TCMCS)
were used respectively to measure the holistic thinking and participants’
ability to apply the TCM in practice.
The results showed that the CHTS had
high internal consistency reliability and the TCMCS had high construct
validity. Also, the
authors found that individuals who thought more holistically were better
at applying TCM to modern medical problems. Interestingly, TCM was associated
with holistic thinking in both TCM and non-medical students, suggesting that
this association was intrinsic. Further exploration revealed that the
association and variability facets of Eastern holistic thinking—which emphasize
that the world is interconnected and ever-changing, respectively—significantly
accounted for the individual differences in competence in utilizing TCM in
practice.
In short, this study provided an empirical evidence linking TCM to
the Eastern holistic thinking style by using the individual differences, which
not only deepened the understanding of TCM from a scientific perspective but
also promoted dialogue between TCM and Western medicine for building safer and
more effective health care systems.
Article by Huanhua Lu, et al, from Beijing
Normal University, Beijing, China.
Full access: http://mrw.so/HtUai
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