Chiropractic Foundations
D.D. Palmer's Traveling Library
Volume three

From Chapter 1:  

     Chiropractic emerged in a specific time and place in history, in an extraordinarily unique culture and society — nineteenth century America. And it is the importance of this fact that sets chiropractic apart from many of the health professions in the world. Out of all of the spiritual movements and healing methods of its day, chiropractic has thrived. Few others can make this claim.

     In large part chiropractic has been shorn of its original garments, which came from the metaphysical and religious culture of America. Remnants of chiropractic’s original ideas remain in the profession but, by and large, fewer and fewer chiropractors know of the origins and fewer still are taught what those meta­physical roots were actually about. Even amongst those who know of these roots, few of them have found much value in the ideas that originally inspired Palmer’s thinking.

     There are several important reasons for this current trend in chiropractic to rid itself of the philosophical baggage associated with its origins. One of the main reasons was to create a modern-day health profession that is united around physical, measurable, external things. A good description of the evolution of chiropractic’s contemporary outlook can be found in Redman and Cleveland’s Fundamentals of Chiropractic (2003), in the chap-ter, “The Chiropractic Paradigm,” by Ashley Cleveland (daughter of Carl Cleveland III, president of Cleveland Chiropractic College, and an instructor of principles and philosophy therein), Reed Phillips (president of Los Angeles College of Chiro­practic), and Gerard Clum (president of Life West Chiropractic College). The authors define “Contemporary Expressions of the Chiropractic Paradigm,” without, “metaphysical terminology.” This includes the notion that the body self-regulates and self-heals. Both of these definitions are external, that is, they occur in the body and in the world of matter. This type of distinction will be evidently important below as we show the need to distinguish the physical aspects of the body’s self-healing ability from the spiritual and internal experiences that accompany an individual’s sense of well being. I will show in the following pages that dismissing Palmer’s “metaphysical terminology” does not address the philosophical dilemma that he and his son created, especially when viewed as part of the history of ideas and the development of the postmodern sense of self.

     Chiropractors of today have largely focused their attention on clinical outcomes, scientific validation, and medical interventions, particularly in regards to pain management and overall neuro-musculoskeletal pathologies. Any discussion of philosophy is generally reduced to a philosophy of health, which centers around scientific validation. In regards to the origin of Palmer’s thinking, a dismissal of outmoded systems is the rallying cry and an embrace of the “modern” outlook is the unifying call. Without a proper context, such as described in the coming pages, these discussions miss the great depth from which chiropractic sprang. They throw the baby out with the bath water. This is evident in several recent textbooks such as Redman and Cleveland’s aforementioned book, Leach’s Chiropractic Theo­ries (2004), and Haldeman’s Principles and Practice of Chiro­practic (2005). 

     Most chiropractors do share a commonality of method and technique, although these approaches vary significantly. And yet, with the modern over-emphasis on scientific empiricism, the essence of chiropractic’s origins have been virtually lost, even amongst those who have attempted to preserve them. All that remains of chiropractic’s underpinnings are statements such as from Cleveland, Phillips, and Clum, about dropping the meta­physical baggage and retaining the body’s self-healing and self-regulating abilities as central.