I am teaching classes this weekend on Eastern Philosophies and Herbs for Western Practitioner.  I decided to look at what the general consensus on what the idea of “eastern medicine” is for westerners.  More so that explaining the cultural and unique things that make things like TCM what it is or AYurveda what it is, the general explanations often imply a sense of being more preventative and holistic than Western medicine.  I think a big challenge for Western Herbalists that practice from a holistic traditional model, is to reeducate and redefine the idea of Western Medicine.  Western medicine comes from a rich holistic tradition that was squashed with the rise of allopathic medicine, which most of the West is dominated by.  In order to take back our roots, I think we must look deeper than saying things like “East-West”  Instead I think the real division here is Holism versus reductionism.  Many modern authors have attempted to promote this with books like Matthew Wood The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism and Wolf Storle Wise
Philosophy