Antti Auttaja is a Finnish Canadian businessman who practices alternative medicine in a northwestern Ontario city. His healing method involves pressing his hands and fingers firmly but gently on the feet, wrists, stomach, chest, and other bodily areas of his clients, who recline on their backs on the floor, with pillows propped under their head and knees. His clients respect him and his healing ability, and as the questionnaire and interview data presented in this article clearly show, they feel he has helped them enhance their quality of life in a way that is unique to him and very special to them. He exemplifies a holistic healer working along the periphery of the modern biomedical system. His practice exemplifies the alternative medicine category of the domain of nonconventional medicine.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abbot, N. C. , & Ernst, E. (1997). Patients’ opinions about complementary medicine. Forsch Komplementärmed, 4, 164-168.
2.
Aung, S.K.H. (1996). Complementary medicine and primary care: Enhancing the quality of life. Canadian Journal of Clinical Medicine, 3, 4-15.
3.
Bannerman, R. H. (1979, December). Acupuncture: The WHO view. World Health, p. 27.
4.
Benson, H. , & Klipper, M. Z. (1975). The relaxation response. New York: Morrow.
5.
Benson, H. , & Stark, M. (1996). Timeless healing: The power and biology of belief. New York: Scribner.
6.
British Medical Association . (1993). Complementary medicine: New approaches to good practice. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
7.
Cant, S. , & Sharma, U. (1998). Reflexivity, ethnography and the professions (complementary medicine): Watching you watching me watching you (and writing about both of us). Sociological Review, 46, 244-263.
8.
Cassidy, C. M. (1994). Unraveling the ball of string: Reality, paradigms, and the study of alternative medicine. Advances: The Journal of Mind-Body Health, 10, 5-31.
9.
Cassidy, C. M. (1995). Social science theory and methods in the study of alternative and complementary medicine. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 1, 19-40.
10.
Cassidy, C. M. (1996). Cultural context of complementary and alternative medicine systems. In M. S. Micozzi (Ed.), Fundamentals of complementary and alternative medicine (pp. 9-34). New York: Churchill Livingstone.
11.
Cassileth, B. R. (1998, March 2). Complementary/alternative medicine: Separating the wheat from the chaff. Family Practice, p. 17.
12.
Cooper, G. , & Woodham, A. (1997). Healing hands lead to alternative revolution. The Independent, 22,2.
13.
Driedger, S. D. (1997). Healthy options: The poll finds strong support for alternative treatments. Maclean, 29, 36.
14.
Eisenberg, D. M. (1997). NIH (National Institutes of Health) research: Testimony before the US Senate Labor and Human Resources Subcommittee on Public Health and Safety, October 9, 1997. Washington, DC: Federal Document Clearing House.
15.
Eisenberg, D. M. , Kessler, R. C., Foster, C., Norlock, F. E., Calkins, D. R., & Delbanco, T. L. (1993). Unconventional medicine in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 328, 246-252.
16.
Ernst, E. (1995a). Bitter pills of nature: Safety issues in complementary medicine. Pain, 60, 237-238.
17.
Ernst, E. (1995b). Complementary medicine: Common misconceptions. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 88, 244-247.
18.
Ernst, E. (1995c). Primum Nihil Nocere. Forsch Komplementärmed, 3, 268.
19.
Ernst, E. (1996, February). Complementary medicine: Doing more good than harm?British Journal of General Practice, 46, 60-61.
20.
Finkler, K. (1980). Non-medical treatments and their outcomes. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 4, 271-310.
21.
Finkler, K. (1981). Non-medical treatments and their outcomes. Part two: Focus on adherents of spiritualism. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 5, 65-103.
22.
Fulder, S. (1984). Handbook of complementary medicine. London: Coronet Books.
23.
Kleijnen, J. , Knipschild, P., & ter Riet, G. (1991). Clinical trials of homeopathy. British Medical Journal, 302, 316-323.
24.
Kleinman, A. (1986). Social origins of distress and disease: Depression, neurasthenia and pain in modern China. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
25.
Langone, J. (1996, September 18). Alternative therapies: Challenging the mainstream. Time, 148, 40-43.
26.
Leslie, C. (1980). Medical pluralism in world perspective (Part 1). Social Science and Medicine, 14, 191-195.
27.
McCreery, J. L. (1979). Potential and effective meaning in therapeutic ritual. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 3, 53-72.
28.
Morse, J. M. , McDonnell, R., & Young, D. E. (1988). Documenting the practice of a traditional healer: Methodological problems and issues. In D. E. Young (Ed.), Health care issues in the Canadian north (pp. 89-94). Edmonton, Canada: Boreal Institute for Northern Studies.
29.
Morse, J. M. , Young, D. E., & Swartz, L. (1987). A Cree Indian treatment for psoriasis: A longitudinal study. Culture, 7, 31-41.
30.
Morse, J. M. , Young, D. E., & Swartz, L. (1991). Cree Indian healing practices and Western health care: A comparative analysis. Social Science and Medicine, 32, 1361-1366.
31.
Patel, S. (1987). Problems in evaluation of alternative medicine. Social Science and Medicine, 25, 669-678.
32.
Stepan, J. (1983). Legal aspects. In R. H. Bannerman, J. Burton, & C. Wen-Chieh (Eds.), Traditional medicine and health care coverage: A reader for health administrators and practitioners (pp. 290-313). Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization.
33.
Sutherland, L. R. , & Verhoef, M. J. (1994). Why do patients seek a second opinion or alternative medicine?Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, 19, 194-197.
34.
Vincent, C.A.S. , & Richardson, P. H. (1986). The evaluation of therapeutic acupuncture: Concepts and methods. Pain, 24, 1-13.
35.
Warkentin, R. (1997). A modern Finnish shaman in a northwestern Ontario city. Journal of Finnish Studies, 1, 91-102.
36.
Workshop on Alternative Medicine . (1992, September 14-16). Alternative medicine: Expanding medical horizons (Report to the National Institutes of Health on Alternative Medical Systems and Practices in the United States). Chantilly, VA: Workshop on Alternative Medicine.
