Osteopathic medicine: Philosophy, Principles, Practice
- Walter Llewellyn McKone
- Jan 18, 2025
- 2 min read
by Walter Llewellyn McKone
“The past is never dead, it's not even past.” William Faulkner.
On his return from the American Civil War, surgeon, politician, abolitionist and philosopher Andrew Taylor Still (1828-19170) thought he had experienced the worst horrors in his life. He was wrong; even greater trauma was to come. During February 1894 “Drew”, as was called, lost three of his children to spinal meningitis. He was “torn and lacerated with grief” (Sill, 1897). His colleagues could not help. There had to be a better way. He went back to the basics by returning to anatomy. His studies revealed that the source of our protection against infection was the white blood cells that begin as blood seeds (Lane, 1923): today we call them stem cells. These cells originated from bone marrow making bone the central immune system (Schirrmacher, 2023); hence the term osteopathy. An ill patient has problems moving with the circulation becoming compromised. This means that the circulation of white blood cells is not at its most efficient. Dr. Still had the idea to move the body and “pump” the circulation aiding the white blood cells and stimulating the nervous system by reducing joint restrictions throughout spine and ribs.
Still realised that the way of thinking was important and developed osteopathy as a philosophy, “The student of any philosophy succeeds best by the more simple methods of reasoning… His lack of knowledge in the field of philosophy leaves him in the field of a masseur…(Still, 1902)” In particular the activity of perception, “Anatomy is taught in our school more thoroughly than in any other school, because we want the student to carry a living picture of all or part of the body in his mind, as an artist carries the mental picture of the face, scenery, beast, or anything that he wishes to represent by his brush. I constantly urge my students to keep their minds full of pictures of the normal body (Still, 1902).” This is a combination methods derived from Aristotle, Immanuel Kant and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; Pros to Kairon (as the situation demands), analysis and synthesis and exact sensorial imagination, respectively. Over the years the philosophical foundation of osteopathy has been subject to cognitive atrophy.
As a surgeon he saw manipulation as surgical in style “The question is being asked almost hourly, “What is Osteopathy?” In answer to that, I will say, “It is a system of surgery.” And if I should undertake to give a definition of the duties of an osteopath, I would say, “The duties are this of a surgeon, for an osteopath is no more nor less than a surgeon.” (Still, 1904). The use of the knife was seen as wet surgery and the hands as dry surgery. His idea was to develop surgical philosophers and not technical manipulators.
If you found this article from Walter interesting perhaps you would also enjoy his innovative and pioneering book Osteopathic medicine: Philosophy, Principles, Practice (2001)
Walter Llewellyn McKone, DO, London UK.
