ABSTRACT
This chapter explores, from a medical sociological perspective, the use of complementary therapies by palliative care nurses. Since the 1960s, the development of the hospice movement in the UK has occurred concurrently with the developing interest of UK society in complementary medicine. Studies have shown that palliative care has become one of the key areas where complementary therapies are used. Therapies commonly used in cancer and palliative care include: massage; aromatherapy and reflexology. A. Giddens’ ideas provide another way in which the use of complementary therapies in palliative care can be understood. According to Giddens, as people go through life they are, for the most part, able to suppress existential anxieties and become ontologically secure by receiving, in infancy, an emotional inoculation from their caretakers. This inoculation, which contains the ability to have basic trust, acts like a protective cocoon, which people carry round with them throughout life and can draw on when faced with difficulties.
