Alternative health protagonisms – the theoretical context of a comprehensive research program

Abstract

The emergence of alternative health systems has given rise to a plurality of methods of care due to the reflexive construction of pathways that lie beyond normative medicine. These lay choices stem from rationalities that are divorced from scientific reason and are instead tied to complex explanatory systems based on subjective experience. This article discusses the phenomenon of what we call ‘alternative protagonisms in the trajectories of health’, which involves promoting one’s health using approaches that are not part of biomedicine. What makes individuals seek alternative systems for promoting health and coping with disease? How do individuals integrate these systems into their daily lives, and how do they articulate them within the biomedical system? What are the lay rationalities that privilege alternative systems in explanatory and interventional contexts? Because this is a relatively recent phenomenon in Portuguese society and it has not been assessed from a sociological perspective, we identify the analytical pillars that form the foundation for this approach to health. Toward this end, this article summarizes the classical dichotomies that have shaped the debate on the production of knowledge, particularly regarding health and disease. This summary includes the dichotomies between science and common sense, between nature and culture, and between medical and lay rationalities.