Traditional Chinese medicine and "seeing inside the body"

In a previous class, we talked about western and non-western medicine. One of this weeks’ reading (by Erikson) also discusses how the belief of “seeing is knowing” gradually became popular as western anatomy and medical technology was advancing, on which the use of obstetric ultrasound technology depends largely. Both of these motivate me to share my thoughts on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). I have never studied TCM seriously, but I have extensive experience being the patient of doctors practicing TCM and have learned a little bit about TCM theory here and there.

Compared to modern western medical science, TCM science relies much less on “seeing” the inside of the body – anatomy and imaging, although according to TCM one can sometimes tell your health situation based on the appearance your skin or your tongue. In my opinion, this tendency is partly due to the lack of relevant technology for surgery and imaging traditionally and also partly due to the belief or feeling that the human body as a whole is an integral and self-organizing system and therefore should not be violated by intrusion into the body. This belief/feeling can probably account for the lack of development in surgery techniques in TCM. In addition, as some of us mentioned in a previous class, non-western medical sciences are sometimes not based on reductionism, on which western science is based. I think TCM is also a good example for this.

In addition, Gammeltoft mentioned the skepticism of pregnant women in Vietnam towards the trustworthiness and safety of obstetric ultrasound imaging. I am not familiar with traditional Vietnamese medicine, but based on Wikipedia it is influenced by TCM… So I think maybe this skepticism can be also attributed to the uncomfortableness towards “seeing the inside of the body” within the local medical culture.