Alternative Health and the Challenges of Institutionalization

Abstract

Through a case study of a complementary medicine clinic in a major urban hospital this article explores the links between two levels of power in the alternative health movement – the institutional level and alternative health’s ‘submerged networks.’ Alternative health is conceptualized as a ‘new social movement’ whose central goal has been to create and sustain a form of life outside of conventional codes and institutional arrangements. The strength of this movement has been its ability to create a cultural laboratory where patients and activists can experience new ideas, authority relations, and identities. Through interviews and observations with the clinic staff and patients, the article asks whether alternative health’s growing success in achieving institutional recognition is coming at the price of alternative health’s submerged networks and core identity. Overall it is argued that complementary medicine clinics located in hospitals have the potential of establishing fruitful links with the dominant health care system but there is a clear danger of becoming absorbed by that system. The other danger is that alternative health will remain marginalized and lose touch with the institutional direction of society as a whole. The article concludes by arguing that alternative health should remain a ‘dual movement’ with institutional links as well as maintaining a close connection to the lifeworlds of patients.