About The Anglo-Dutch Institute
The study, critical examination and practice of the traditional medicine of East Asia in the Occident, provides a series of rare opportunities. Oriental medicine is a valuable health promoting system that facilitates a person finding relief, repair or even reconciliation. Oriental medicine can be a crucial ingredient to mend the disruptions of illness or to maintain vitality of health. Included under the rubric of Oriental medicine are many routes: acupuncture, herbal medicine, massage, dietary recommendations, exercise, mindful self-control and self-examination methods. All these methods provide the tools for profound possibilities in healthcare.
Oriental medicine is also a way to have a living relationship with the past. Ancient methods, old manuscripts and even unresolved historical debates all demand our attention, consideration and delibaration. The past makes an important claim on the present through Oriental medicine. The past is a living presence in Oriental medicine, but Oriental medicine also points towards a new future. The adaption of this medical tradition to serve the health needs of people requires adaptability and vision. New diseases, new healthcare expectations, new delivery systems, new possibilities of cooperation and research all require more than just imitation of the past. Oriental medicine has an important stake in the future.
Finally, in addition to the negotiating with past and future, Oriental medicine is especially demanding in the present. In the clinical encounter, Oriental medicine is a vessel that allows and demands understanding, acute sensitivity and compassionate resonance. Oriental medicine in its approach to people is a method of skills and attentiveness that ensures relationship to the immediate wholeness of another human being. Oriental medicine demands an receptivity to the immediacy of another person that is all inclusive. Oriental medicine for its practioners is a possibility of encounter with skill, confidence and finally humility.
Oriental medicine is an invitation to grow, develop and learn new tools and techniques and new ways of thinking, feeling and being. Oriental medicine is a system of health care that both helps patients and also provides a rewarding opportunity for its practitioners. Oriental medicine is a possibility of helping people that requires its practioners to be attentive to their own capacity to be fully human.
I am happy to be a member of The Anglo-Dutch Institute for Oriental Medicine's team of teachers and practioners. I, and the rest of our community invite you to join this rare opportunity to engage the past, future and the immediately present.
Sincerely,
Ted Kaptchuk
Ted J.Kaptchuk is the Academic- and Research Advisor of The Anglo-Dutch Institute. Ted Kaptchuk is Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, serves on the National Advisory Council of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCAAM) at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Expert Advisory Panels for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Besides numerous books, a.o. 'The Web that has no Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine' he has published in such journals as the Lancet, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine and Archives of Internal Medicine.