• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.777-789
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• 2011

This study focuses on seeking a desirable direction for the discussions about identity issue of the current Traditional Korean Medicine(TKM). The identity issue of the current TKM is about asking what exactly the current TKM is, what sets the TKM apart from the other medical systems, and what value the TKM has in the contemporary settings, and seeking suitable answers to all these questions. The most important factor that affects these answers is what kind of the concept of identity we have. Current discussions of the identity issue of the TKM take narrow and inflexible concepts of identity such as "Numerical Identity," or "Qualitative Identity", not suitable for TKM, which is always changing and open to other academic fields. This study suggests that Hannah Arendt's concept of identity is more desirable for the TKM, which highlights pluralism and relations, as well as defining identity as a creative, positive, and open-ended process. In addition, this study also suggests that taking a closer look at the "field", which has previously been hidden behind the discourse on the "modernization", will help in figuring out what exactly the identity of the current TKM is. Lastly, the current discussions about "unification of Eastern and Western medical system", and "Integrative Medicine" in Korea will affect the identity issue of TKM.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.758-769
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• 2010

This is a preliminary study for examining the identity issue of the current Traditional Korean Medicine(TKM). In order to examine the identity issue, it is necessary to understand "what" current TKM is. The current TKM has been formed in the complicated historical settings and the newly formed academic geography of modern times, completely different from those of the traditional era. This paper took diachronic and synchronic approaches in order to understand the current TKM. In the process of modernization and scientization of the TKM-which had begun in the early twentieth century-the western medical knowledge merged into the TKM. Also, as the College education of the TKM began after the Liberation from the Japanese colonial rule, the TKM scholars accepted the western medical department system to develop the TKM into professional knowledge. Meanwhile, since the late 1970s, the TKM has been influenced by the modern Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and the TCM knowledge also merged into the TKM. And recently, the research methodology of the complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and the clinical research technique of the western medicine-like Evidence based Medicine (EBM)-are affecting the scientization and clinical study of the TKM. The current TKM has been formed as a result of the hybridization of these different knowledges. These changes in the TKM were inevitable for the survival of it in the fast changing world. But these changes brought with them problems. Among those, the identity issue is the most important and crucial.