Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/621015
Individuals may have opinions about these issues based on their personal experiences and interests, but it is important to acknowledge that there is a bigger picture to consider—a broader view that takes in the past. Four historical sketches are presented here to show how knowledge of bygone days can provide perspective on current discussions about the nature of the profession. This is merely a taste of the possibilities. 1. Massage and bodywork practitioners today are descended from a long line of hands-on healers that goes back in time for centuries. Although soft-tissue manipulation and movement techniques remain primary, other practices have been incorporated at different times, such as hydrotherapy, electrotherapy, and other compatible natural methods. Techniques related to energy were adopted in the form of magnetic healing in the 1880s. Magnetism, or vital force, was purported to be transferred to patients by "magnetic masseurs." Although the term magnetism became obsolete within a few decades, the notion of healing energy being imparted with the hands has never entirely disappeared from the field of massage, even if not universally embraced. 2. A holistic philosophy has endured through generations of manual practitioners. In 19th-century America, holistic principles were carried forward via Per Henrik Ling's medical gymnastics, known popularly as the Swedish movement cure. According to the underlying theory, the mechanical forces of soft-tissue manipulation and movements were deemed to bring the body, mind, and spirit of the human organism into harmonious balance, resulting in good health or healing. The Swedish system was a natural alternative to drugs and surgery. Significantly, the more medically oriented system called "massage" as developed by Dutch practitioner Johann Georg Mezger was adopted by Ling's followers, and it was they who promoted the combined system of manual therapy in America. So, even though the modern profession is called "massage therapy," its philosophical foundation harkens back to the holistic viewpoint of the Swedish system of Ling, which encompassed healing and good health in its scope. 3. The knowledge base of hands-on practitioners has grown and evolved through the years. Tradition and experience were predominant for centuries, but, beginning in the 1700s, science based on observation and measurement began to be valued as another way of exploring the benefits of what was known then as rubbing and friction. At first, individual cases were cited as evidence of effectiveness. Soon, studies became more sophisticated, with controls inserted into experiments. A golden age for massage research, from about 1870 to 1920, coincided with the THE E VOLUTION OF MASSAGE promotion of drugless healing methods in lieu of regular medicinal treatment. It wasn't until the 1990s, during another renaissance period for CA M, that massage research began to increase once again. 4. Some final observations involve the historical relationship of manual therapists to mainstream medicine, which is complicated at best. The predecessors of today's massage therapists worked at different times as physicians' and surgeons' assistants, technical specialists to doctors of drugless healing systems, and independent practitioners/healers in their own right. In the late 1800s, masseuses and masseurs could ply their trade under any of these scenarios, but eventually they split into two different professions. After World War I, those who specialized in orthopedic treatments within conventional medicine developed the allied health profession known now as physical therapy. At the same 1884 1895 John Harvey Kellogg, early advocate of holistic therapy methods, publishes the Art of Massage: A Practical Manual for the Nurse, the Student and the Practitioner. Douglas Graham publishes the landmark massage therapy text A Treatise on Massage, Its History, Mode of Application and Effects. This is a photo from the archives of the Swedish Institute in New York City. It is a 1921 anatomy class.