RHP&EO is the electronic journal of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education

The Construction of Health Promotion in Homoeopathic Practice

Espen Brmthen

Midt-Norsk Kompetansesenter for Rusfaget / Vestmo Behandlingssenter Breivikvn. 54-56, 6018 Alesund, Norway

The paper is based on a small-scale ethnographic study comprising extensive semi-stucture interviews with twenty-five practitioners of homeopathy, six of which were interviewed twice. The study was carried out in the two largest cities of Norway, Oslo and Bergen during the period August to November 1995.

The aim of the study was to examine the perceptions and constrictions of disease prevention and health promotion by the homeopathic practitioners. In accordance with the homoeopaths conceptualisation on tiffs matter the study paid particular attention to issues concerning the patient-therapist relationship and strafes for empowering the patient.

The paper starts with briefly introducing homoeopathy and the ethnographic data and moves on to comprise a comparative approach to homeopathy and the new public hearth - in which health promotion is a central plank - with respect to common features and sirucc as well as with regard to what differs or distinguish the two. In this discussion key issues and concepts in 'the ideology of health promotion will be related to the ethnographic data presented and discussed in relation to recent, critical anthropological and sociological writings on health promotion and alternative therapies.

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