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Support for non‐conventional medicine in Israel: cognitive and sociological coherence
Author(s) -
Leiser David
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
sociology of health and illness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1467-9566
pISSN - 0141-9889
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9566.00354
Subject(s) - ideology , paranormal , multidimensional scaling , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , sociology , interpretation (philosophy) , cognition , epistemology , psychology , postmodernism , action (physics) , social psychology , alternative medicine , medicine , computer science , law , linguistics , mathematics , psychiatry , philosophy , statistics , physics , pathology , quantum mechanics , machine learning , politics , political science
This study investigated patterns of beliefs concerning CAM (complementary/alternative medicine) in 403 subjects in Israel. Multidimensional scaling and generalised linear model analyses of their answers to a questionnaire evidenced two sources of organising factors: (1) commitment to CAM approaches and techniques is dependent on the specific approach, and this differentiation may be related to corresponding explanatory principles such as powerful action, healthy living, and fighting stress; and (2) broad support for CAM in general, correlated with New Age ideological cultural themes (ecology, the paranormal, Eastern wisdom) which share an underlying framework of demedicalisation. It did not prove possible to cluster respondents into types, and factor analysis uncovered but a single factor. This suggests that subjects combine the organising factors in a pragmatic blend, a finding congruent with a postmodern interpretation that emphasises the blending of high and low, ideological and practical.