Needling the spirit : an investigation of the perceptions and uses of the term Qi by acupuncturists in Québec
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The intent of this thesis is to explore the various ways in which acupuncturists trained in Quebec interpret and use the term qi in their practice as healers. It argues that these choices are influenced by the implicit connection between complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and New Age spirituality. As Asian medical systems such as Chinese medicine carve out a niche within the dominant biomedical health-care system, there is a simultaneous desire to present its medical system as scientifically coherent within the biomedical context and a desire to cater to the New Age orientalist fascination with "traditional" Asian medicine and what is perceived as its inherent spiritual qualities. This study concludes that although Quebecois acupuncturists are well-versed in the historical interpretations of the term qi, as well as its medical applications, there is nevertheless a tendency for these practitioners to understand qi as a part of the framework of their own personal spirituality and the relation of that spirituality to their work as healers. Moreover, it is shown that this tendency is strongly informed by the interface of New Age notions concerning healing and the CAM movement. By situating the study within the cultural milieu of Quebec, the specific religio-historical background of this locale and its effects on these practitioners is also taken into consideration.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.011 | 0.004 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".