THERAPEUTIC TOUCH AND POSTMODERNISM IN NURSING.

This essay addresses the conundrum of how therapeutic touch despite its lack of effect gained a major foothold in the nursing profession. In this phenomenon, there are several antecedent tensions. One is between doctors and nurses both performing medicine and experiencing that the knowledge and skills of doctors are more highly valued and rewarded than the knowledge and skills of nurses. Another tension is over the knowledge base. Therapeutic touch practitioners describe its roots as humanist contrasting it with doctoring which is based on science. From this base, it seems to have been a small step to an anti-science stance. Critiques from postmodernism, especially critiques of science have been used to frame and bolster the rationale for therapeutic touch.