Week 1 Journal: Global Health and You
The unquestioning faith we place in western medicine immunizes us from the kind of suffering which results from a lack of hope. The privilege of medical hope being within reach, and always available, asserts itself over faith-based treatments, but is also a delineation across social and economic means. If you have means, you are afforded hope. It causes us to construct a perspective where the supernatural mysticism valued by suffering communities in less developed parts of the word is viewed as as less effective than the science of western medicine. It establishes a value system which prejudices western medicine over mysticism, and discards the hundreds of years of tradition and lived experience for which such supernatural methods have been in practice. It’s not that we seek to enlighten the traditional with scientific method, but seek more inclusive pathways for them to coexist.
Upon watching the documentary The Name of the Disease, I found myself engaged in precisely this value hierarchy, dismissive of the traditional mysticism found in rural Udaipur. But with localized skepticism of western medicine exacerbated by unregulated treatment, it’s possible to understand why those who suffer would consistently turn to more traditional healing methods. There is a strength and dignity in that legacy, and importantly, it offers hope to those who lack means. We may argue that it is a false hope, but if local treatment centers are shuttered and larger hospitals too far, there is an expectant resignation which comes from what is available, and has been for centuries.
