Social Medicine for Holistic Health-An Alternative Response to Present Crisis

An Alternative Response to Present Crisis Rudolf C Heredia Modern scientific medicine still continues to dazzle us with its wonders, but it cannot cover up the crisis it has precipitated for itself What is needed is a more comprehensive and radically new paradigm for an alternative approach to health care. Two critical approaches are outlined here: the older political economy critique and the newer socio-cultural one. Both have their implicit assumptions and specific concerns. The 'social medicine urged by the first and the 'holistic health' defined by the second are complementary rather than contrary. For only when our medicine is genuinely 'social' can we really have 'health for all, and only if this health is authentically 'holistic' can we truly be 'healthy people.