Postmodern Promotion of Alternative Medicine*
Healing Is Believing: Postmodernism Impacts Nursing
Living on Borrowed Authority: Postmodernism and Methods of Presentation
SCIENCE PROCEEDS ON ASSUMPTIONS THAT THERE are procedural norms to be followed by participants in the scientific endeavor. These norms exist both as ideals and as practical guidelines that are recognized by scientists, whose behavior is evaluated by adherence them. Guidelines are usually not spelled out as such in each scientific project, but are assumed. Scientists and clinicians are able to recognize others’ lack of adherence. The realities of scientific endeavor make these rules of conduct flexible to a degree, but without guidelines there could be no agreement as to who belongs to the scientific community, or which activities are acceptable.
For physician and academic scientists there are also educational standards. However, many nonphysician and lesser-degreed workers also have access to major journal publication and to receipt of deserved awards. Even Emily Rosa, a nine-year-old student who devised a clever test for the “human energy field” posited by Therapeutic Touch, was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.1 Thus, educational status, degree, academic status, or prior publication are no longer certain indicators of scientific legitimacy.
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