Vitalism is Defunct: Chiropractic and Manual Therapies, 2020

here, excerpts and reflections from

Simpson, J. K., & Young, K. J. (2020). Vitalism in contemporary chiropractic: A help or a hinderance? Chiropractic & Manual Therapies, 28(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12998-020-00307-8:

001. in “Vitalism in Contemporary Chiropractic: A Help or a Hinderance?”, authors Simpson and Young write:

“vitalism arose out of human curiosity around the biggest questions: Where do we come from? What is life? For some, life was derived from an unknown and unknowable vital force. For others, a vital force was a placeholder, a piece of knowledge not yet grasped but attainable. Developments in science have demonstrated there is no longer a need to invoke vitalistic entities as either explanations or hypotheses for biological phenomena. Nevertheless, vitalism remains within chiropractic [...]";

ah, yes.  Defunct.  Vitalism, also, is quite the basis of naturopathy.

"vitalism has had many meanings throughout the centuries of recorded history. Though only vaguely defined by chiropractors, vitalism, as a representation of supernatural force and therefore an untestable hypothesis, sits at the heart of the divisions within chiropractic and acts as an impediment to chiropractic legitimacy, cultural authority and integration into mainstream health care […]";

true that.

"to invoke vitalistic entities as explanatory hypotheses was an unacceptable misunderstanding of the logic of science […] the former was rejected on scientific grounds because any hypothesis involving vitalistic concepts was untestable by scientific means […] the AMA based its information campaign on two arguments: the fundamental vitalistic tenets of chiropractic are pseudoscientific, untestable hypotheses in conflict with accepted scientific evidence […] health care providers are expected to demonstrate results from their efforts and to use methods that comport with a scientific understanding of health and disease […] rather than adapting the paradigm of health to accommodate scientific advancement, vitalistic chiropractors seem to be becoming increasingly militant, levelling vitriolic ad hominem attacks on heretics and using emotion-laden labels as epithets, such as subluxation denier […]";

and the zombie corpse of vitalism keeps staggering down the road, gesticulating with its fists at the modern world that is passing it by.