Osteopathy as a Philosophy
When thinking of Osteopathy, rarely does philosophy come to mind. Nevertheless it’s a philosophical topic, it was a complete departure from what was understood to be medicine at the time and dove deep into the human function through the interaction of anatomy and physiology. It is this rationale and perspective on health and healing that differentiates Osteopathy from other methods of therapy and is philosophically different than many other approaches to healing.
Osteopathy began as a process of realization that occurred over the lifetime of its founder Andrew Taylor Still. Dr. Still was born in Virginia, USA in 1828 and spent his early years living on the frontier with his family. His father was a Methodist preacher and required them to regularly travel large distances between settlements. Despite being very religious himself, Still moved away from inheriting his fathers vocation and instead began to work as a medical doctor helping the rural and remote population.
Living on the frontier required people to mange all aspects of their lives independently and to learn quickly. He spent much of his time interacting with the Shawnee on the frontier becoming familiar with their culture, learning their language, and understanding their connection to the natural environment to thrive.
Through Still’s religious upbringing and his connection to the natural world, his views on health and healing through medicine at the time were called into question. His understanding was that mankind and nature were both created as perfection in God’s eyes and that the existing laws in nature must also exist in the human body. He witnessed that nature is inherently sustainable and healthy which led him to think deeply about the functions of the body. If the body contained all the necessary components to maintain and regulate itself the way nature does, what might create the conditions for disease to take place? How might he be able to bring balance and harmony into the systems of the body after they have gone awry? Out of these questions and many like it grew the early explorations that became Osteopathy.
Still used his ability to reason and his practical investigation of natures laws to understand the forces that governed health and disease in the human body. He saw systems in nature reflected in the workings of the human body and used those reflections to better understand the complexities of anatomy. Much like how a healthy ecosystem utilizes streams and waterways to remove debris and deliver nutrients, the body utilizes its fluid networks to do the same. Should these networks become affected or limited, repercussions on the whole system ensues. His understanding and application was a life long process since Dr. Still did not publicize his work until 1874 when he was 46 years old.
Still’s initial success in manual treatments turned from a thought or conceptual exploration into an expectation for improvement after he learned the relationships between the anatomical structures in more detail. After years of continuous studying to learn the wiring, plumbing, and framing of the body, he began to rationalize what and why something might be wrong and tested his theory in practice. The science of Osteopathy was born.