ABSTRACT
In the first half of the nineteenth century, Americans usually studied in Paris, since France had become the center of medicine of that period. The influence of the movements in Scottish, English, French, and German medicine was felt in US medical practices from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s. The position is an important turn in thinking about medical practice, as it opens the door for a serious consideration of other ways of knowing, other forms of knowledge that are important in caring for the patient. The reliance on medical practice framed within a biomedical model has been criticized in various ways during the latter part of the twentieth century. Practices and values of modern medicine have their foundation in the social and intellectual contexts of the mid-nineteenth century. The macro and micro forces combine to provide a powerful culture of resistance to seriously considering alternative paradigms for the theory and clinical practice of medicine.
