Impressions from the Second Annual Conference on Chiropractic Philosophy
Mark R. Filippi, D.C.
Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research ~ Volume 4 ~ Number 4 ~ Pages 109-111
Abstract
Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic
October 13-14, 2001
Spartanburg, SC
As I sat there in the audience, attending my 2nd Conference on Chiropractic Philosophy, the overall theme that emerged from it was 3D to me. How can the profession make the transition from defending chiropractic to delivering it without developing its philosophy beyond its present expression? Early on, a sidebar conversation between Ashley Cleveland, DC and Fred Barge, DC, Ph.C. revealed that the early underpinnings of chiropractic philosophy were articulated by attorney Tom Morris, as recorded later in the Lerner Papers. Everyone walking the earth with a D.C. after his or her name knows that in order to become a separate and distinct profession, chiropractic had to distinguish itself from the practice of medicine and osteopathy. The courtroom served as a public venue for it.
Chiropractic’s assertion that the functional well-being of an individual is expressed through the tonality of their nervous system established a legal precedent. From my own personal experience, and it appears, from the collective experience of those present at the conference, chiropractic philosophy has remained locked into defending that assertion for much of its history. The legacy of chiropractic philosophy’s survival was fostered by bolstering the capacity to support that stance ever since. The conference focused on the lexicon that emerged to explain what was, at the turn of the 20th century, a radical and provocative view.
