Principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Jul 12, 2020 Book Review…, News

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Book Review…

Book: Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies – Psychology and Chinese Medicine
Author: Leon Hammer, M.D.
Critic: Glenville Ashby, PhD

Dr. Leon Hammer’s ‘Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies – Psychology and Chinese Medicine,’ exhaustively examines the philosophy behind an ancient medical practice.
In this didactic study, Hammer establishes that Chinese medicine is a myriad and complex array of diagnostic, therapeutic, and philosophical information that shows a clear relationship between parts of the human body as they relate to normal functioning and development of illnesses. It is a principle that originated in the Daoist concept of universal cosmic energy as the determining factor of life and health.
Although an ardent proponent of Chinese medical doctrine, Dr. Hammer cautions against viewing this model as ideal.
“The very special attributes of precision, predictability, exactness, and systemization which characterize Chinese medicine,” he argues, “are also its greatest drawbacks.” He emphasizes that “disciplines require new questions and new answers, as well as the immutable wisdom of the old.”
Dr. Hammer distinguishes between the diagnostic process as practiced in the East and the West. In the former, there is an unmistakable therapeutic quality to diagnosis.
“Mastering the pulse and face reading can tell people things about themselves and their lives which seem to by-pass the usual resistance encountered in the psychotherapeutic process,“ Dr Hammer writes.
“The maladaptive patterns of thought, behaviour and feeling which we identify as pathological are identified by a high degree of rigidity.”
In one case study he explains how a diagnosis can demonstrate the interplay between somatic and psychological abnormalities. “One patient had a pulse of 68 tension in the liver and gallbladder and stagnation between the liver and heart; her tongue was swollen with mucous and a tremor…the palms of her hands had a blue colour and blue lines…” He immediately formed an impression that “the patient was a moody and somewhat depressed with a considerable amount of repressed anger.” He elaborates, “Changes in pulse rate at rest…are indicative of a person who is somewhat moody and depressed and who is probably very worried and unstable emotionally.”
Dr. Hammer concedes that Western psychoanalytic theory on somatization disorder, in particular, conversion and somatic diseases, explores repression and body dysfunction; and such psychological states can trigger and exacerbate psychosomatic ailments, such as, peptic ulcers, bronchial asthma, and even infections.
But this diagnostic approach in the West pales in comparison to Chinese medical culture. Of this, he exemplifies, “Chronic anger is blocked in the muscles of the upper back that control the movement of the upper extremities, as well as the lower back (holding back).” Anger he states, affects the liver.
Of this marriage between psychological states and biological functions, he continues, “Large intestines symbolizes ‘elimination’ in all its many senses, including the elimination of bad thoughts as well as bad energy (faeces). Likewise, the small intestine separates the pure from the impure in food and it is also responsible for separating out pure from impure thoughts, reabsorbing the pure and passing on the impure to the large Intestine.”
Our emotional disposition, according to Dr. Hammer, affects vital organs, for example, the debilitating impact of sudden fear, guilt and worry on the heart. He also cites two schools of thought regarding the adverse impact of fear and sadness on kidney functions, inviting readers interested in deeper research on the subject to explore Felix Mann’s ‘The Channels of Acupuncture.’
Interestingly, while western medicine has advanced studies in eleven regulatory systems in the human body that include the cardiovascular and haemopoetic systems, the gastrointestinal system, and the immune and lymphatic systems, Chinese medicine has added a defining element that gives these systems the very life force they need to function. This life force is called Qi, an energy that “shapes all future functions and functional relationship that constitutes life.“ The energetic dynamism of this force is encapsulated in the theory of Yin and Yang and the Five Phase System in Eastern lore. This complex system follows seasonal movements. Dr. Hammer describes the interplay between seasons, elements and the human anatomy. “Beginning with the spring,” he writes, “we have the Wood phase (Liver and Gallbladder), which generates and is ‘mother’ to the summer or Fire phase (Heart, Small Intestine, Triple Burner, and Pericardium), which in turn gives rise to the late summer or Earth phase (Spleen-Pancreas and Stomach), which then produces the autumn or metal phase (Lung and Large Intestine). The Metal phase creates the winter or Water phase (Kidney and Bladder) which completes the generational cycle and begets again the spring and Wood phase.”
To put this into perspective we must view this system as a cyclical relationship between physiology and the elemental system. Dr. Hammer explains, “Theoretically, when an emotion affects an organ, such as the Liver (Wood phase), the other organ in the phase system would be the next to be affected, – in this instance, the Gallbladder. In homeostasis or treatment, the controlling phase, i.e., the Liver, in this case must be strengthened.”
Clearly, physiology, psychology and nature interweave to determine the constitutional health of a patient. In the systemized and wholistic structure of Chinese medicine, healing is realized when these many variables are keenly monitored and addressed.
Dr. Hammer decries the western approach to healing that has weaponized medicine to confront and eradicate illnesses. It is a method he believes that “has compromised the human body in the process.” He avers that “Western medicine is heir to Cartesian thinking and the industrial revolution, and is aimed at controlling, even defeating nature and the universe…hence the often fatal side effects of allopathic medicine.
“In Oriental medicine,” he notes, “the patient is the primary factor in the development of the disease and the agent who needs to be strengthened to cope with the disease. It views illness as an expression of a personal violation of nature. It calls upon the person to become aware of how he is interfering with the flow of his own nature. He is encouraged to examine how he lives, how he thinks, how he feels, his habits, and his values, in order to understand why he is ill – medicine and life are one.”
Clearly, nature and the human body form an indissoluble connection. It is within this framework that treatment is prescribed.
Dr. Hammer’s presents a scholastic and comprehensible oeuvre that is an invaluable resource for medical practitioners and lay persons. As globalism thrives, many leading medical facilities in the West are instituting Eastern cultural values as part of their integrative and complementary medical practice.
The medical ethos is fast changing, ever adopting new systems and methodologies to address daily medical challenges. ‘Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies’ adds to the volume of literature now embracing the demonstrable value of Chinese Medicine.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
Feedback: [email protected] or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby.

Publisher: Eastland Press – Seattle
ISBN- 10: 0- 939616-47-5
Available at Amazon
Ratings: Essential

 

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