100-Year Anniversary of
Anthroposophic Medicine as an
Integrative Medical System
David MartinComplement Med Res 2020;27:375–378 DOI: 10.1159/000511668
As I write this editorial, I am attending what may bethe largest congress since the corona pandemic lockdown: over 800 health professionals are meeting for 1 week at the Goetheanum in Switzerland to celebrate “100 Years of Anthroposophic Medicine” – strictly abiding to the Swiss regulations of keeping 1.5 m distance and/or wearing a mask (correcting the proofs of this article a few weeks later I can say that there were no cases of COVID-19 in any of the participants following this event). Due to the pandemic, many people from around the world are not able to attend this event. Thanks to the pandemic, the celebration has become decentralized, with over 50 countries participating: This year, 2020, is celebrated worldwide as the 100th anniversary of anthroposophic medicine (AM), an integrative medical system. Its founders, Rudolf Steiner, PhD (1861–1924), and Ita Wegman, MD (1876–1943), were determined to establish a holistic medical system that would overcome the reductionism of their time. From the beginning, AM was thought of as an integrative medicine that encompasses mainstream medicine. Steiner was striving to complement outer scientific cognition with inner scientific, intuitive cognition according to his epistemology and, from that basis, to inspire doctors to practice what he called in 1920 “intuitive medicine”.