Context: The chiropractic clinical encounter is a vague event in terms given by Swinburne56 and is difficult to define. This vagueness or indeterminacy is drawn from the variability of the Chiropractor and their training, the variability of the clinical entity within and about the spine that they seek to treat, and the unpredictable variability of individual patients. Collectively these create Chiropractic’s indeterminacy.
Discussion: The clinical outcomes from a Chiropractor’s care are remarkable. There are over 3,089 indexed, published Case Reports of Chiropractors telling their unique story of positive clinical outcomes resulting from their clinical management at the intersection of these indeterminacies. I question how this can be in the face of the interaction presenting as a complex problem with multiple indeterminacies.
Using the philosophical approach of a Pragmatist I absolve these indeterminacies by applying the Japanese philosophy of kokoro with ‘affective sensibility and rational thought’ to explain the Conventional, Realist Chiropractor’s clinical encounter through interdependency. Here I argue how and why this could be so and that this argument most probably applies also to the interactions of post-realist small-c chiropractors.
Conclusion: I conclude that interdependency is an acceptable explanation for the effectiveness of the Chiropractic healing encounter. This contention places importance on the interdependency of the relationships in the Chiropractic clinical encounter and removes Western ideas of cause and effect. Interdependence allows inclusion of McDowall’s concept of tone and Richards’ understanding of vitalism.
Author keywords: Chiropractic - Philosophy - Education - Indeterminacy - Interdependence - Bayesian
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