Medicine’s Rebel Child - Osteopathy through the ages cover art

Medicine’s Rebel Child - Osteopathy through the ages

Medicine’s Rebel Child - Osteopathy through the ages

By: Ed Paget
Listen for free

Summary

The history of medicine is written by the victors, but the story of osteopathy is found in the margins. Join us as we peel back the layers of a profession often dismissed, misunderstood, or mislabeled by the medical establishment. From its radical origins on the American frontier to its struggle for legal legitimacy, this podcast explores the tension between Andrew Taylor Still’s holistic vision and the rigid biomedical model that sought to contain it. We dive into the lost philosophy, the eccentric metaphors, and the "sanitized" history of a practice that has always insisted: there is more to health than the absence of disease.

 Hygiene & Healthy Living Physical Illness & Disease
Episodes
  • Early Osteopathy, Native American Traditions, and Neuroscience

    Early Osteopathy, Native American Traditions, and Neuroscience
    May 4 2026

    This podcast is based on the article by Zegarra-Parodi et al (2019)

    The Native American heritage of the body-mind-spirit paradigm in osteopathic principles and practices.

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1746068919300793

    We explore the deep, often overlooked connections between Native American traditional healing and the foundations of osteopathic medicine. We discuss how A.T. Still, the founder of osteopathy, was influenced by the body-mind-spirit paradigm used by Native American Medicine Men to develop a holistic approach to health while living among the Shawnee people.

    The conversation examines the Medicine Wheel as a conceptual framework for achieving balance across physical, mental, and spiritual factors. We also investigate the transition between monophasic and polyphasic brain functioning—moving beyond Western-centric labels to understand how spiritual experiences and different realities are now being interpreted through modern neuroscience and predictive processing models. Ultimately, we highlight how the osteopathic profession is uniquely positioned to bridge its traditional heritage with a scientific model of truly holistic care.
    Show More Show Less
    49 mins
  • How Osteopathy Erased It's Soul

    How Osteopathy Erased It's Soul
    Mar 6 2026

    This podcast highlights an academic review published in the journal Healthcare, 2024, that compares the 1897 and 1908 editions of Andrew Taylor Still’s autobiography to track the early evolution of osteopathy in America. The authors argue that revisions made to the second edition reflects a deliberate attempt to standardize the profession and gain legal recognition within a rapidly formalizing biomedical healthcare system. To avoid charges of sectarianism, reviewers sanitized the text by removing references to spiritualism, Native American influences, and eccentric metaphors. These findings highlight an early shift from Still's holistic, person-centered origins toward a more restricted, science-oriented medical model. Ultimately, the study encourages modern practitioners to reconsider how non-physical components of health might be reintegrated into contemporary patient care.
    Show More Show Less
    51 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.