A History of Australia’s Early Cosmopolitan Naturopathic Osteopathy: The Pioneering Practice and Global...

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Shirley Murray Strachan

A History of Australia’s Early Cosmopolitan Naturopathic Osteopathy

The Pioneering Practice and Global Symbolism of Thomas Ambrose Bowen

Shirley Murray Strachan

$305

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
30 May 2025

Anthropology; History of medicine; Chiropractic & osteopathy; Human biology

Revealing the forgotten ideas and philosophy behind early naturopathic osteopathy, Shirley Murray Strachan presents a reoriented historical view of Thomas Ambrose Bowen and his work, breaking from the prevailing twentieth-century legitimation narrative of mainstream chiropractic and osteopathy and exploring the contributions and practices of Australia’s early cosmopolitan naturopathic osteopathy pioneers FG Roberts and Maurice Blackmore.

Viewing Bowen’s practice and symbolism through a historical lens, the book examines the forgotten world of early cosmopolitan Australian osteopathy, debunking popular posthumous commercialised claims about Bowen’s work and asserts the importance of traditional approaches in naturopathic osteopathy. Though an interrogation of conflicting origin stories and myths about Bowen’s work, it highlights the important contributions of naturopathic pioneers FG Roberts and Maurice Blackmore. The background narrative is the struggle of mainstream chiropractic and osteopathy seeking professional recognition and forged from in-fighting between overseas and Australian chiropractic and osteopathic political interests. Counterposed is the posthumous popular interpretations that orphaned Bowen’s work from its wellsprings in naturopathic osteopathy.

This is an accessible book for historians and practitioners of early osteopathy, chiropractic and naturopathy, especially to the large, international community of accredited Bowen therapists.

By: Shirley Murray Strachan
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781032990675
ISBN 10: 1032990678
Pages: 234
Publication Date: 30 May 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Introduction 1 Bowen’s World: Under American Pressure; Legitimation of Osteopathy and the Sidelining of Naturopathic Osteopathy. 2 Through Bowen’s World, Early Educational Opportunities in Osteopathy. 3 Neuropathy Practice and Pressure Movements within Early Australian Osteopathy 4. Bowen and the Influence of Saunders - Australia’s Herbert Barker 5 Recontextualising Bowen and Eastern Medicine 6 Fluidity and Transformation: Bowen and His Peers in the South Pacific and Beyond 7 The VSSO and Bowen A Victim of Regulation 8 Medical Pluralism and Beyond: the Bowen Story

Shirley Murray Strachan is an historian and honorary research associate with the Future Regions Research Centre Federation University, Australia, ND, remedial massage and Bowen Therapist.