Order and healing: the concept of order and its importance in the conceptualization of healing.

Order is central to healing, and a model of healing built around order can bridge biological and cognitive domains. Drawing on Javanese mystical practices that unite human and natural orders, the paper uses this example as a metaphor for an expanded notion of order. It examines how order is conceptualized in medical anthropology, science, and medicine, emphasizing the role of analogy and metaphor. This perspective moves beyond conventional biomedical categories, offering a basis for reconceptualizing fields like psychoneuroimmunology.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This paper concerns the notion of order and its role in the conceptualization of healing, and therefore its importance to healing itself. It proposes a model of healing in which order is central. The paper begins with an example drawn from Javanese mystical practices which are based upon the concept of the unity of the human and natural orders. The Javanese case provides a metaphor for an expanded notion of order. This prefigures a consideration of the nature of the concept of order in medical anthropology, science, and medicine. The importance of the notion of analogy (and metaphor) in the concept of order and how order may be simultaneously conceptualized in both cognitive and biological domains is also discussed in the paper. The perspective on order and healing developed here goes beyond conventional biomedical categories and provides a basis for the fundamental reconceptualizations necessary for addressing contemporary developments in psychoneuroimmunology, for example.