The ancient Greeks created two words for that which we might describe as beauty, something that is good and valuable. Agathos was the first term that was created. It meant good or beautiful of intrinsic value. It referred to the inner beauty or value of a person or object. The word kalos was later created to describe beauty in form, outer beauty, having symmetry and a desirable outer form. When I was a teenager a girl that was said to “have a great personality” often meant in the looks department she was less than desirable or worse. Most guys were looking for a kalos girl not an agathos one. After all, when the other guys saw her on your arm all that was visible was her kalos not her agathos. An empty head was acceptable as long as she had a pretty face and a great “form”. Some of us were fortunate enough to find a girl who was both kalos and agathos. Probably the high rate of divorce these days is because kalos does not last and after that, agathos or lack of it is all that is left.
Medical doctors are often faced with this problem. Constant television advertising promotes the kalos, the superficial, visible benefits of a prescription drug, downplaying the “side effects” thus causing the public to request and expect the doctor to prescribe what has been seen on a newscast commercial. The poor physician must then deal with the patient who should not be taking the drug or has taken it and experienced a negative reaction.
A chiropractic adjustment produces agathos, good of intrinsic value. The innate intelligence of the body and its forces are expressed more fully with an adjustment, every time, all the time. That is its intrinsic value and the objective of chiropractic. Whether that results in visible, physical, demonstrable changes is not the chiropractic objective but it is often the expectation of the practice member who has been led to believe that since medicine creates visible, demonstrable changes, so should chiropractic. We must begin to re-educate the public to expect intrinsic good from chiropractic care irrespective of outward, visible results. That is or should be the major thrust of our chiropractic educational program, first in chiropractic school and then in chiropractic practice.
When you say
” but it is often the expectation of the practice member who has been led to believe that since medicine creates visible, demonstrable changes, so should chiropractic”.
I think typically when a person Pays for a product or service, they expect some THING or some Representation that accounts for the objectness of what money typically pays for.
Objectifying a metaphysical or immaterial outcome (fuller expression of Innate Forces), while monumental (Chiropractic – Meaning of Life), needs to be fully understood by the PM AND the Chiropractor to value it within our Materialistic Driven Society
True, they’re paying for the service of the Chiropractor’s time, service and expertise, but then again, it’s their body that renders the adjustment and the fuller expression of their innate intelligence.
Do we even remove the interference? Nope. We impart an educated universal force so that they, the PM might use it to their benefit.
Typically, intrinsics, which bear the highest value (life, family, friendship, love, god and spiritual connection, peace of mind, etc.), are FREE. No one owns them. We’re just responsible for their maintenance within our life. We might pay for sex (not me), but we’d never pay, with money for love, real love. That would miss the mark completely.
We pay with reciprocation, with goodness, with human good will, with lending our time, our ear, our vision.
Extrinsics? well that’s a whole other ballgame.
Somehow perhaps we need to convey our clear objective which is Valueless and have an agreement shown thru an honest wage deserved in this society for the time, expertise, and perhaps the only real commodity we deal in is re-pointing of the light back onto the person, while we execute our Objective, plus money acts as a commitment vehicle to valuing an intrinsic. It’s how Educated Intelligence and it’s tinctures step out of the way of Innate Intelligence Intent