Chiropractic is:
A. The treatment of disease without drugs or surgery.
B. The adjustment of vertebral subluxation to improve
health.
C. The adjustment of vertebral subluxation to enable the
innate intelligence of the body to better express itself.
D. The removal or reduction of the vertebral subluxation
and its component parts (VSC).
E. All of the above.
F. None of the above.
If A is the answer we might as well pack it in. We have no chance of maintaining a unique identity.
The problem with B is that to everyone health has a different meaning. It is a confusing term. Is it simply an absence of symptoms? Do we use Dorland’s or Webster’s definition?
If D is the correct answer then we very well may have relegated chiropractic to the treatment of a disease. Just because that disease is a unique one that no one else is treating and because we are confining our efforts to only one disease does not make it any more philosophically acceptable. Disease is the presence of something manifested by certain symptoms. V.S. on the other hand is the physical representation of the absence of something ease, health, harmonious function, the full expression of the innate intelligence of the body.
Understanding V.S. as the physical representation of the cause of dis-ease is important to our understanding. An analogy may be helpful. A wedding band is a physical thing. However it is much more than just a band of gold. It is a physical representation of the absence of something. It says that the individual wearing it is no longer a member of the pool of available people for marriage. (It represents much more than that, but for the sake of our analogy that is sufficient).
Here is the point. Our emphasis is not on the band of gold. It does have intrinsic value (whatever the price of gold), but its real value is in what it represents. To the broad scope practitioner and some so-called straights the V.S.C. is a physical entity like other diseases. But one which chiropractors regularly treat. It is a band of gold more valuable than some, less valuable than others. But to the philosophical D.C. it is not the V.S. that is important but what it represents the absence of life expression in the body. When we begin to look at the V.S. as an entity to be addressed it loses its uniqueness. It is like seeing a wedding band as merely a piece of jewelry.
The V.S. is a symbol if you will, a visible representation of an invisible reality DIS-EASE. The invisible reality is more important then the visible symbol. The marriage relationship is more important than the piece of metal on the finger.
V.S. is an entity, but it is not our reality. DIS-EASE, lack of expression of the innate intelligence of the body is. Disease on the other hand, including the V.S. and its component parts, is the reality of medicine. It is not our reality. That is why from a chiropractic perspective we do not recognize the existence of disease as an entity. (If you do not understand this concept you need to read Chiropractic Philosophy). It is merely a manifestation of an absence of ease. In first semester philosophy we use darkness and light and heat and cold as the analogies. Because disease is not a chiropractic reality or entity we do not treat it the practical application of the philosophy. When we begin to address V.S. or the V.S.C. as an entity, as something more than just the physical representation of the cause of DIS-EASE, we are dangerously close to compromising our philosophy. v5n1