'Allopathy'

[Crundy]

I noticed a few people getting quite angry with Dr Malik for using the term 'Allopathy' to refer to conventional Western medicine, and so I thought I'd consult the dictionary:
http://www.askoxford.com/results/?v...llopathy&branch=13842570&textsearchtype=exact

allopathy

• noun: the treatment of disease by conventional means, i.e. with drugs having effects opposite to the symptoms. Often contrasted with HOMEOPATHY.

— DERIVATIVES allopath noun allopathic adjective allopathist noun.

(Emphasis mine)

Weird. Personally I don't agree with this, because not all CWM drugs have effects opposite to the symptoms (using the original homeopathy example, quinine), and so do you think the Oxford Dictionary definition needs refining, or is this correct?

 

[Rolfe]

I'd say that definition is deficient. I suspect one might find a more detailed definition in a larger edition of the dictionary.

Nevertheless, if a word is used in a certain sense, then it is not incorrect for a dictionary to define it in that sense. It is not the job of a dictionary to omit actual usages because they are insulting.

Rolfe.

 

[Professor Yaffle]

For more on the hisory and usage of the term:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allopathic_medicine

 

[Cuddles]

Nevertheless, if a word is used in a certain sense, then it is not incorrect for a dictionary to define it in that sense. It is not the job of a dictionary to omit actual usages because they are insulting.

Rolfe.

That's only true to a certain extent. The problem with this entry is that it contradicts itself. Allopathy can be used to mean conventional treatment or it can be used to mean drugs having the opposite effects from the symptoms. It cannot mean both at the same time since they are both completely different things. Whether it is insulting or not, it is simply wrong.

 

[Mojo]

There is a certain irony in the fact that homoeopaths rarely, if ever, seem to criticise medical systems which have far more in common with the 18th century "allopathy" that Hahnemann invented the term to describe, such as Ayurveda or TCM both of which are concerned with "humours". I can only assume that homoeopaths don't regard them as posing the same sort of threat to their livelyhood as modern medicine.

 

[Rolfe]

That's only true to a certain extent. The problem with this entry is that it contradicts itself. Allopathy can be used to mean conventional treatment or it can be used to mean drugs having the opposite effects from the symptoms. It cannot mean both at the same time since they are both completely different things. Whether it is insulting or not, it is simply wrong.

Yes inded. That's why I said the definition was deficient.

What I really meant was that a definition saying that "allopathy" meant conventional medicine wouldn't actually be wrong, because the word is used that way.

It just wouldn't be of any value in demonstrating that the term was acceptable. You might as well point to a dictionary which defined the n-word as meaning a black person, and say, look, that's OK then.

Rolfe.

 

[Dogdoctor]

Homeopathy uses the unscientific unproven, unlikely to be true, philosophy that choosing treatments with the same effect as the diseases they are trying to treat is important. They assume that other doctors think this is an important aspect in choosing a treatment and so call scientific medicine "allopathy" implying that scientists think whether a treatment has a similar or different effect as the disease it is treating is of some significance. So they like to use it because it implies that something might be true to homeopathy since those ideas are key to it's unfounded unscientific philosophy.

 

[Dr. Imago]

"Allo-" = different/atypical. "-pathy" = disease process. Inadequate and superfluous term to quickly describe the "gestalt" of standard western medicine, which is used primarily to distinguish between osteopathy and homeopathy.

I'm simply a "Doctor of Medicine" (M.D.). That usually suffices. Most everyone knows what an M.D. is and does.

-Dr. Imago

 

[Big Les]

It's the most obvious example of the "othering" of something counter to the agenda in question that I've ever seen. As already said - allo = other, pathy refers to medicine.

In other words, Hahnemann was attempting to replace real medicine with his BS, simply by changing the language. A big feature of cult mentality, incidentally.