Ayurveda as medical rationality: the six dimensions that emphasize its therapeutic practice

Abstract

This article aims to analyze Ayurvedic care practices through the concept of “medical rationalities” developed by Luz1 (2012) in his research called “Medical Rationalities and Health Practices” at the Institute of Social Medicine of the State University of Rio de Janeiro, a project “pioneer in research on non-conventional medicines”5, which the author considered as a “comparative socio-historical theoretical study of four complex medical systems” 10. Ayurveda, the “science of life” or “wisdom of life,” is a system of traditional medicine and philosophy that originated in India more than five thousand years ago. It is inserted in the category of medical rationalities because it is, naturally, a complete, complex and vitalistic medical system. The five dimensions of medical doctrine, morphology, vital dynamics, diagnostic system, and therapeutic system are based in his cosmology. The understanding of his cosmology that man and nature are interconnected leads to an understanding that disease is the result of the rupture of internal and external balance. For the therapist to indicate and apply any of the practices of the therapeutic system, they must deeply understand all other dimensions. It is not possible, therefore, to make use of its practices in a fragmented way, or to look at the human subject in a fragmented way.