BOOKLIST: Suggested Reading
Biomedical Acupuncture for Pain Management – An Integrative Approach
Yun-Tao Ma, Mila Ma, Zang Hee Cho
This may well currently represent the most comprehensive approach to the biomedicalization of classical acupuncture. It has excellent chapters on the neurology of acupuncture and integrates most of the contemporary scientific acupuncture theories and practices. Also openly embraced as part of the mix is the additive/enhancement nature of the so-called placebo effect in the acupuncture therapeutic process.
Acupuncture In Practice – Beyond Points and Meridians
Anthony Campbell
Dr. Campbell is a long-standing acupuncturist who more or less utilizes Felix Mann type acupuncture. He exemplifies a cautious scientific approach emphasizing the importance of resisting ultimate theories of acupuncture as none of the contemporary approaches or research account for all of its effects. He outlines the Acupuncture Treatment Area (ATA) as a realistic alternative to acupoints.
Reinventing Acupuncture – A New Concept Of Ancient Chinese Medicine, Felix Mann
This book was first published in 1992 and it’s astounding that so few acupuncturists appear to have read it. Felix Mann has practiced acupuncture for over 40 years and wrote some of the very first texts in the modern West. Initially he studied traditional acupuncture, making several trips to China. An independent thinker he soon moved on denying the existence of the meridians and even precise acupoints. The book is sometimes a little eccentric but overall a seminal work of one of the West’s greatest acupuncturists.
Medical Acupuncture – A Western Scientific Approach
Jacpueline Filshie, Adrian White
An excellent textbook with 20 contributors on the developing scientific understanding of acupuncture theory and practice.
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The Gunn Approach to the Treatment of Chronic Pain – Intramuscular Stimulation for Myofascial Pain of Radiculopathic Origin
C Chan Gunn
This richly anatomically detailed book outlines Dr. Gunn’s intramuscular stimulation form of acupuncture. First published in 1989 long before acupuncturists were talking about motor points Chan Gunn had developed this contemporary acupuncture therapy involving such points and more besides. Central to this approach is the concept of neuropathic pain, releasing shortened muscles that put pressure on nerves and resetting a malfunctioning peripheral nervous system.
Problems with the Energy - Meridian Theory (PDF)
D. E. Kendall
After reading this article several years ago I ceased explaining to patients that acupuncture was balancing energy in the meridians. D E Kendall makes a clear case for the mystification of contemporary traditional acupuncture through mis-translation and its subsequent marginalization in modern medical practice. It is truly amazing how entire alternative medicine systems (Thought Field Therapy, NAET to name two) have been built upon the erroneous energy-meridian construct. How then do these systems appear to work? You might ask. Remember acupuncture has a deep generalized stimulation effect possibly capable of being molded via anticipation or suggestion and mediated through the brain’s limbic system.
An Introduction To Western Medical Acupuncture
White, Cummings and Filshie
A very readable, clearly outlined text written by three British medical acupuncturists. Covers acupuncture's long history in the West, neurological mechanisms, clinical research, why traditional chinese acupuncture theory needs to be largely abandoned, treatment methods and guidelines , etc. Also looks at the main theories of scientific acupuncture currently in use.
The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine
Shigehisa Kuriyama
An interesting book on the similarities between Chinese and Greek medicine including pulse reading.
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