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.
Zibin Guo, PhD
Dr. Zibin Guo is a professor of Medical Anthropology at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, and a tai chi master. He may be contacted at zibin-guo@utc.edu.