Andrew Taylor Still The founder of osteopathy

Andrew Taylor Still

On the morning of June 22, 1874, American physician and surgeon Andrew Taylor Still claimed to have an intuition to postulate osteopathy. Who was the man who founded this method of osteopathy, which is becoming more and more popular in Germany??

contents
Andrew Taylor stills development
On the way to osteopathy
The influence of Herbert Spencer
The development of osteopathy
The rationale of osteopathy
Still and osteopathy
Spread of osteopathy
source Notes

Andrew Taylor stills development

Still was born in 1828 as a child of the Methodist-preacher couple Abram and Martha Still. He was born directly into the clashes between slave advocates and opponents and the heyday of heroic medicine. Still, who like his family clearly belonged to the slave-keeping opponents, worked as a surgeon in the American Civil War. He was allowed to witness how despite or even because of the then aggressive treatment methods was often prematurely amputated and many patients died. Stilllife and his first wife, Mary Vaughan, lost their son, George W ... In 1859, four days after giving birth, a baby of stills died and one month later stills wife Mary. Still married again in November 1860. As part of an epidemic of cerebrospinal meningitis in early 1864 died again three children of Still and his second wife Mary Elvira Turner. In 1867, Stills father fell ill with pneumonia and succumbed to the disease.

On the occasion of these tragic experiences and the dramatic observations during the war, the trust A.T. Stills in the administration of medication. Still became a seeker: he began to deal with methods and concepts that lay outside the ordinary medical business.

On the way to osteopathy

Phrenology was widely used as a kind of medicine and worldview with naturalistic features. It was also called the "skull teaching", because among other things on the basis of bulges of the skull on personal qualities should be concluded. Originally created in Europe by the German physician and anatomist Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828), this method had also prevailed in America. In the course of time it came to influences of individual teachers or other methods such as Mesmerism, through which the original phrenology was changed.

Still must have come into contact with Mesmerism and Spiritualism during the Civil War or shortly thereafter. That was not particularly difficult, because spiritualism was quite widespread. Many people were looking for a more vivid version of religion or spirituality. The rigidified rituals of the church had already been denounced in his writings by the co-founder of the Methodists and John Wesley, a native of naturopathic folk medicine.

The influence of Herbert Spencer

Added to this was Darwin, whose evolutionary theory spread more and more and influenced many people. In the United States, however, it was the sociologist and philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) who caused a stir in his book "First Principles" in the field of evolution. Spencer emphasized evolution as the principle of his ideas, which referred to all components of human life and coexistence and ensured that there was always a desire for superiority. For many people, Spencer united science and religion in his writings. His theories therefore mutated into a kind of substitute belief.

Also A.T. Still mentions the strong influence that Spencer's ideas had on him when founding osteopathy.
He writes that "Principles of Philosophy" has permeated him like an arrow and that he understands that "God means perfection in all things and in all places."

From Still's point of view, illness became "a change in function" and was not, as was the then common view, an intrusion of foreign substances from the outside. He was in the tradition of the French pathologist Professor François Joseph Victor Broussais (1772-1838). The latter was also influenced by the phrenology of Galls and had established the "Physiological Medicine" (Broussaism) with the cause-and-effect principle. As with Still, there was a rejection of medication at Broussais, but his favorite treatments included leech therapy (especially in the organ field) and diets.

The development of osteopathy

Still brings in his notes his vision regarding the discovery of osteopathy directly related to the reading of Spencer's writings. He describes it as a kind of revelation and liberation. Still, he had already been hostile to his family and the economic situation was not rosy either.

Still had practical observations besides the literary studies. So he opened on the one hand Indian tombs to investigate the corpses on their anatomical conditions and hold written. In addition, he should always have worn bones in his pocket, which he felt and showed in support of his theses interested. On the other hand, he began to detect colder and warmer, as well as more flexible and firmer areas in the body in a so-called "flux" disease ("high fever, headache and diarrhea mixed with blood"). He treated all possible diseases quite successfully and tried by working with his hands to balance the tensions and temperatures. Over time, he gained more and more experience and observed recurrent "abnormal conditions" (Carol Trowbridge) in the same places in the affected persons for certain symptoms. For example, in whooping cough, he found the muscles "painful and hard, which pulled the clavicles and sternum back to the nerves of the respiratory system." Still began to learn manual techniques and replaced the ideas of magnetism with anatomical ones like the flow of the lymph or the blood.

The rationale of osteopathy

Stills treatments were so effective that his skills quickly spread and patients from far away came to him with a variety of ailments. Gradually, patients wanted to learn this type of treatment and Still decided in 1892 at the urging to set up a class. He was initially denied admission because the local official felt that this type of treatment was inevitably linked to the person's stills.

After all, the first class took place after all, and Still could, after initial inadequacies, perfect the lesson and recruit and train more and more students and teachers. Towards the end of 1892, the American School of Osteopathy (ASO) was founded. The practice stills was fully utilized. It had the appearance of pilgrimages to Kirksville, where Still lived and worked with his family. Finally, the local people also participated in osteopathy. They made sure that a hospital was set up in addition to the school, which already in the year 1895 about thirty thousand treatments were made.

Still and osteopathy

Andrew Taylor Still had created optimal conditions for himself and his ideas after years spent moving around with his family, never financially secure and even hostile to his family. Despite personal glory and monetary success, philosophical ideas and principles were still the most important thing for Still. The ASO was the first medical institution in the United States that also allowed women. In addition, Still cared more for socially needy patients, as well as wealthy clientele who wanted to be treated exclusively by him.

Still, his family had partly integrated into the school, but still his family enjoyed no special status. The ideals of osteopathy always came first for the "old doctor", as he was now called in the environment of school, practice and clinic.

Still, it was always rejected that the school was named after him and claimed no fame for osteopathy. He always described himself as the discoverer of osteopathy, not as the founder or inventor. Because he thought that all things in nature already existed and he only had to discover them.

So it was also difficult for him to use pure techniques, e.g. to mediate in back pain because he assumed that, knowing the basic principle, the treatment would have to be clear. In his book "Research and Practice" he writes: "Then I will not have to worry that I have to write down in detail how to treat the organs of the human body because he (" the osteopath "note a .) is qualified to a degree knowing what variations of each type have produced in form and movement. I want to set up in his mind the compass and the pit light, with which he can get from the symptom to the cause of all the abnormalities of the body. "

Until his death in 1917 Still dealt a lot with nature around him and technical innovations. In 1903 he attended a spiritualist meeting in Iowa and treated there asthma, hip pain, shoulder discomfort and a goiter. After a stroke in 1914, he could not speak properly.

Still, Still was not a very simple person. To follow his principles, he stung other people, judging by reports, without any hesitation. Even in social contact, he was sometimes difficult. He apparently subordinated everything to his "service" to osteopathy. Since his thinking was very fast and complex, and he was always in his own osteopathic world, his words and conversations were sometimes difficult for outsiders to understand and understand.

Spread of osteopathy

With the increasing awareness of osteopathy, new problems developed. The old-established physicians sensed competition and requested to secure their unique selling point via their well networked professional organizations. As a result, the recognition of osteopathy progressed rather slowly, and many osteopaths were unable to be sure that they were doing their job and could expect daily that they would be prohibited from practicing. In addition, other approaches were added within osteopathy, and for Still, the blurring of principles. In the same street where the ASO was, the former colleague of A.T. Still, Marcus Ward, a separate school in 1898, with its own principles: The Columbian School of Osteopathy, Medecine and Surgery. The Littlejohn brothers, Martin J. in particular, were at odds with Still as they approached conventional medicine and wanted to integrate it into the classroom. The rejection of Stills led the Littlejohns to open the Chicago College of Osteopathy and Surgery in Chicago in 1900.

Still realized that it became necessary for him to write down his thoughts on osteopathy and wrote four books: An Autobiography, "The Philosophy of Osteopathy", "Research and Practice" and "The Philosophy and the Mechanical Principles of Osteopathy", which today as a complete edition translated as the "Still Compendium" available in Jolandos Verlag.

Also at the instigation and advocacy of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), better known under his author pseudonym Mark Twain, author of the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, osteopathy gained more influence and recognition in the US. But ultimately it became in the form in which A.T. Still she developed, virtually deprived of her soul, also due to the so-called Flexner Report.

1918, one year after death A.T. Stills, his son Charlie was voted out as vice president and director of the ASO. Symbolically, this act represented a new phase in American osteopathy, but lacked the pioneering spirit of the still-era. Still had a rather pompous funeral in December 1917. One of his favorite songs was Still's: "Oh, Happy Day". Allegedly, his last words about osteopathy are "Keep it pure, boys, keep it pure ...". (Tf)

"The Great Nursing Compendium," Andrew Taylor Still; Edited by Christian Hartmann; Jolando's publishing house
Andrew Taylor Still 1828-1917 A biography of the discoverer of osteopathy Carol Trowbridge; Jolando's publishing house
"Stills Faszienkonzepte"; Jane Stark; Jolandos publishing house