Professional Documents
Culture Documents
H
arriet Beinfield, LAc, and Efrem Korngold, LAc, OMD, attainable, but the medicine compels us to strive for it. In
have practiced Chinese Medicine for more than 25 Chinese medicine everything is linked with everything else—not
years. They were among the first Americans to be just as an idea, but in actuality. Health and illness coexist and
trained at the College of Traditional Acupuncture in arise out of the same conditions. Disease doesn’t come from
England. Together they have written two books: nowhere—it emerges from a lived life. Simply put: Chinese med-
Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine (Ballantine icine not only focuses on the content (the disease), but also on
Books; 1991) and The Chinese Modular Solutions Handbook for the context (the person who has it).
Health Professionals, as well as many articles. They both lecture and
teach nationally and maintain a private practice—Chinese Medicine AT: What do you mean by “the context”?
Works—in San Francisco.
After becoming a licensed acupuncturist, Korngold studied herbal Korngold: Everybody exists within a matrix that includes a family,
medicine at the Kunming Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Institute job, home, neighborhood, geographic area, and psychological and
and the Shanghai College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He received his cultural milieus. Chinese medicine considers the impact of all these
doctor of Oriental medicine degree from the San Francisco College of influences. We attended a workshop recently with Dr John Shen, an
Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in 1986. Korngold taught at the San admired elder of the Chinese medical community, who is in his 80s.
Francisco College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, is currently on Reflecting on more than 50 years of practice, he said that while the
the faculty of the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and medicine is good—the herbs are potent and the acupuncture is
is a diplomate of and served as an examination consultant to the National effective—the ultimate success of any treatment depends on how a
Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. person accepts and uses it. He talked about what he refers to as
Beinfield received her licentiate acupuncture degree in 1973. She has “taking care of your life,” which is something that medicine can’t do
served as acupuncture staff at both the University of California–San for you. In the Taoist-Confucianist tradition, physicians were
Francisco Medical Center and the Center for Pain Relief and Addiction instructors who helped people learn how to live.
Control in San Francisco. She is a diplomate of the National Certification Dr Shen told a story about a 38-year-old woman who, even
Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. after two surgeries, had unremitting uterine bleeding. She asked Dr
Alternative Therapies interviewed the couple while sharing a cup of Shen if he could help. He looked at her, felt her pulse, and talked to
tea in their San Francisco home. her a little bit. Then he said, “I think I can help. But first I need to
do a test to figure out why you’re bleeding. You need to go home
and stay in bed for 2 weeks.” She panicked and said, “I can’t do
Alternative Therapies: You have both been practicing Chinese that. I’m an attorney—I’m too busy.” To which he replied, “Then I
medicine for 25 years. In your estimation, what does Chinese can’t help you.” She was incredulous and asked what he meant. He
medicine do? explained: “I can’t decide what to do for you until I figure out why
you’re having the problem. It’s possible that you’re bleeding
Efrem Korngold: Its overarching goal is to cultivate people’s because of the surgery. On the other hand, it may simply be due to
capacities and to correct whatever underlying disturbances are your body condition. But they require different approaches.”
causing distress. In order to achieve this, it’s useful to investigate He suspected that she was bleeding because she was debilitat-
how a disorder arises so the process can be disassembled and ed. She was a young woman, but was already exhausted. She final-
reorganized, not merely masked. This noble goal is not always ly agreed to the test; after 2 weeks, the bleeding stopped.
t
L e t ’s use another mula, and many of the
example, such as taking St same acupuncture points.
John’s wort for depression. Chinese medical text
Some people re s p o n d
immediately, others slow-
that names three AT: How would yo u
know this?
ly, and some seem not to levels of healing[:] …
respond at all. This doesn’t Ko r n g o l d : The pulse
necessarily mean that the address a person’s com- and tongue and signs and
herb is not work i n g — i t symptoms supply the
may mean that by itself it’s plaints to diminish her clues. Then I evaluate the
insufficient to achieve the symptoms according to
desired result. In Chinese pain, … understand some- the person’s constitution-
medicine we “listen” to the al type—the self-organiz-
pulse through our fingers one’s naturE, … [AND] ing pattern that forms
to “view” the ongoing
process of the body. When
assist a person in fulfill- the milieu within which
these symptoms arise.
we introduce a new influ- ing his or her destiny. The idea of types is a uni-
ence like St John’s wort, versal concept in the West
even if the person doesn’t and East. In Hippocratic
feel a change subjectively, Hellenic times, the four
we can often tell whether there’s been an impact by the alterations in types were phlegmatic, bilious, sanguine, and choleric. We
the pattern of the pulse. Perhaps St John’s Wort is having an effect, expanded the notion of five types—based on the Chinese theory
but not enough for the person to notice, and other herbs must be of five phases—that both describe a person’s styles of being
added to the treatment to potentiate it. and help to predict past, present, and future dispositions
toward illness.
AT: So if a woman came to you with depression, you wouldn’t
just talk to her. You’d feel her pulse, look at her tongue—any AT: Until I read your book, Between Heaven and Earth, I did not
number of diagnostic procedures, right? know that Chinese medicine considered the deep connection
between psyche and soma.
Korngold: By asking questions, feeling the pulse, looking at the
tongue, and examining the body, we learn the characteristics of Beinfield: The connection is seamless. When I encounter a
the problem and the nature of the person. Depression is just a patient, I receive information globally. Then I use the categories
symptom—a signal that something isn’t right. We want to inves- of Chinese medicine to decode it. In our book we describe how
tigate what deeper mechanisms are responsible, like which of the five-phase thinking elaborates five broad classifications into
organ networks and body constituents are not functioning well. which people can be grouped: fire, metal, water, wood, and
The same symptom, depression, can have different sources. A earth. So I immediately begin figuring out where they fit, accord-
disharmony of the lung and liver or of the kidney and heart can ing to their most obvious and striking idiosyncrasies.
produce feelings of hopelessness, irritability, and apathy. An earth, fire, or wood type may come more than halfway
On the other hand, a disharmony between the kidney and to meet me, spilling over boundaries, even invading my space.
AT: Can you give me an example of how knowing a person’s type Beinfield: It’s not about changing someone, it’s about helping
can influence treatment? her be better at being who she is. Usually our strengths are
linked to our weaknesses. Sometimes metal types are so good at
Korngold: One of my patients, a physician, is a water type. He is adhering to familiar patterns of behavior that they have difficul-
a deep thinker, skeptical, empirical, and reluctant to put himself ty initiating exploratory adventures. Yet sometimes that’s exactly
in someone else’s hands. A water type is organized at his core by what’s going to be helpful to them. A metal type will also be pre-
the kidney network, which governs the ear. He wanted to see disposed to problems related to tension in the neck, shoulders,
whether Chinese medicine could reverse his progressive hearing chest, or abdomen. Metal is expressed in the body through the
loss, or at least retard its progress. Meanwhile, he also com- functions of the lungs and large intestine. The polar dynamic
plained of chronic irritable bowel syndrome and prostatitis. We between the lungs (metal) and the liver (wood) creates the possi-
made little impact on his hearing, but his prostatitis, digestion, bility of conflict: the lungs are responsible for dispersing qi and
and overall health improved considerably. blood down and inward, and the liver is responsible for pushing
By identifying him as a water type, I knew my approach qi and blood up and outward. If there is undue friction in this