Friedrich G. Wallner, Fengli Lan, Jan Brousek
 Constructive Realism in Chinese Medicine
 libri nigri, volume 81
 359 pages, paperback
 This book shows how to establish an integrative medicine by the example of a possible cooperation between Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM) and Western Medicine (WM). In the beginning we need to be aware of fundamental differences in the conceptualization and the respective self-understanding of the medical doing. WM follows the Newtonian concept of science, using Aristotelian logics and descriptive methodology. CCM on the other hand uses highly elaborated metaphorics and constructive self-understanding. Therefore, an integrative cooperation between CCM and WM appears to be reduced to addition. But - this book elaborates how constructivism - especially in the form of Constructive Realism (CR) - can build a bridge between WM and CCM: The concept of micro-worlds offers a way of cooperation between CCM and WM as contradicting systems. Strangification, the central hermeneutical methodology of CR, enriches medical terminology. It unites what often excludes one another: manifoldness and exactness.
 Besides this general outcome, the book offers very interesting specific results of research:
 • A new way of treating cancer
 • How acupuncture can be used to treat sleep disorders
 • The effectiveness of acupuncture and herbal remedies for the treatment of migraine
 • A digression to the treatment of Qi pain in Korean acupuncture and moxibustion
 Five contributions to other aspects and dimensions of Constructive Realism complete the book.