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.
Lynn Eder, MFA
Lynn Eder is a professional writer and editor for the acupuncture profession. She was associate editor for The American Acupuncturist from 2009-13 and managing editor for Meridians: The Journal of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine from 2014-2018.