A student stands over a patient, needle poised. They have a “perfect” prescription: a textbook combination of points harvested from a lecture slide on chronic lower back pain. But as the needle meets the skin, the student hesitates - the symptom of a quiet habit that has taken hold of our profession. We routinely say we “prescribe” points. It sounds efficient. It echoes the authority of biomedical culture and fits neatly into the insurance field. But vocabulary is never neutral; repeated long enough, it dictates behavior.
Liliane Papin, PhD, DOM, LAc
Dr. Liliane Papin is founder of Kwan Yin Medicine. She is also a part-time teacher of Chinese medicine and clinic supervisor at Daoist Traditions College, where she regularly teaches food therapy.