["I would have liked to speak with the physicians about it but they waved me aside ..."letters to "Nature and Medicine" 1992-1996].

Abstract

The correspondence of the society "Nature and Medicine" (Fördergemeinschaft "Natur und Medizin") between the years 1992 and 1996 is kept in the Institute for the History of Medicine of the Robert Bosch Foundation in Stuttgart. It offers the possibility to analyse the common medical culture of patients who have an interest in alternative medicine. After a short characterisation of the society itself, the letters are analysed in respect to the figures of correspondents, that of the addressees, and the reasons voiced by both for writing in the first place. The various experiences of the writers with the medical market are then discussed and the patient's expectations as enounced to the addressee are developed. In short, these documents represent an invaluable source for a social history from the point of view of patients. In particular, they show--beyond the implicit criticism of academic medicine--what meanings and values lay medical culture endorses in everyday life.