TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cawthorpe, David
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/09/11
TI  - Toward a Unifying Transcultural Perspective on Illness, Health and Wellbeing: A Theoretical Proposition
JO  - OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
SP  - 038
VL  - 10
IS  - 03
AB  - This paper presents a unifying transcultural perspective on human illness, health and wellbeing by integrating insights from cognitive psychology, existential psychotherapy, Zen philosophy, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and quantum consciousness theory. Kahneman and Tversky’s work on heuristics and biases highlights cognitive constraints shaping decision-making, while Yalom’s existential therapy explores fundamental struggles with death, freedom, and meaning. Watts’ Zen philosophy critiques the illusion of ego and emphasizes non-dual awareness, paralleling TCM’s embodied framework of Qi regulation and acupuncture. Quantum consciousness theory challenges reductionist neuroscience by proposing bioelectric and quantum processes as substrates of awareness. Together, these perspectives suggest that illness and wellbeing cannot be understood through a single lens. By bridging materialist science and philosophical traditions, this synthesis proposes a trans-cultural and integrative approach to health that acknowledges both the biological and existential dimensions of human experience.
SN  - 2573-4393
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.icm.2503038
DO  - 10.21926/obm.icm.2503038
ID  - Cawthorpe2025
ER  -