[ten years ago this month, I began an ND at UB, and therein, I gained expertise in these matters over the course of four years there. Overall, I consider naturopathy to be 'an unethical sectarian pseudoscience.' Here's my commemoration page].
a warning, from one who was snookered, concerning UB's game of labeling their 'naturopathic program educational product' as "professional" and "science" [see 01. below], when naturopathy is essentially about falsely representing profoundly -- for decades and centuries -- nonscientific premises like vitalism [see 02. below] and supernaturalism [see 03. below] as scientific [for what science says, see 04. below] through the use of a confidence-building "university" & "professionally accredited" veneer:
01. the University of Bridgeport states in "UB Spotlight: Health Sciences Programs":
"the University's professionally accredited health sciences programs [...include] the College of Naturopathic Medicine [...our] Naturopathic Medicine (N.D.) [degree] offer[s] state-of-the-art curricula [...] the members of the faculty include skilled instructors with backgrounds in the biomedical and clinical sciences";
Note: UB's use of the label SCIENCE upon the naturopathic, and their emphasis on "state-of-the-art," profession's level curricula, with a skilled SCIENCE faculty. Let's shine my spotlight a little closer, to see the actual-underneath of the naturopathic, below this veneer:
02. vitalism is at the heart of naturopathy:
"guiding principle # 1: the healing power of nature, viz [sp., vis] medicatrix naturae: the body has the inherent ability to establish, maintain, and restore health. The healing process is ordered and intelligent; nature heals through the response of the life force [...] guiding principle #3: the process of healing includes the generation of symptoms which are, in fact, an expression of the life force attempting to heal itself";
Note: UB's claim is that there is a 'purposeful life spirit' bioagency that is scientific in fact. Here's an aggregation of naturopathy's essential vitalism;
03. supernaturalism is at the heart of naturopathy:
"Dean's welcome [...] are you interested in a career in a field of medicine that works to support the natural healing power of the body, mind, and spirit? In naturopathic medicine we call this vis medicatrix naturae (the healing power of nature), and it is our guiding philosophy";
Note: here's an aggregation of naturopathy's essential supernaturalism;
04. meanwhile, science PROFOUNDLY rejects and does not support vitalism and does not support supernaturalism;
Note: as Stephen Novella, MD recently wrote,
"it is a menace to the public when governments license nonsense. It is a betrayal of the public trust, it diminishes all professionalism, and it generally propagates confusion in an area where licensure is meant to provide clarity. One egregious example is naturopathy [...] naturopaths are health care pseudoscientists. Essentially, they are what happens when medicine is completely disconnected from science, evidence, and even common sense";
what to take away from all this:
UB absurdly labels what is profoundly nonscientific as scientific, from the confidence-building position of a "University" claiming a 'professions-level science curriculum' -- this is flim-flam; and what's even worse, UB claims that this confidence game complies with the ethical standards of the professions!
BTW, here's the definition of a "confidence game":
"the elements of the crime of the confidence game are (1) an intentional false representation to the victim as to some past or present fact . . . (2) knowing it to be false . . . (3) with the intent that the victim rely on the representation . . . (4) the representation being made to obtain the victim's confidence. . . And thereafter his money and property" [from "Law Dictionary" (ISBN 0764119966, 2003)].
BTW, here's the definition of a "confidence game":
"the elements of the crime of the confidence game are (1) an intentional false representation to the victim as to some past or present fact . . . (2) knowing it to be false . . . (3) with the intent that the victim rely on the representation . . . (4) the representation being made to obtain the victim's confidence. . . And thereafter his money and property" [from "Law Dictionary" (ISBN 0764119966, 2003)].
