From alternatives to integrative approaches: the invention of ICPs and the regulation of therapies in Brazil (abstract: p. 17)

Abstract

This article analyzes the process of formulating and institutionalizing integrative and complementary practices (ICPs) in Brazil’s public health system. Analyzing the creation of the National Policy on Integrative and Complementary Practices, we investigate how categories such as “practices”, “complementary” and “integrative” not only name but also regulate and redefine the place of alternative therapies in health care. The analysis demonstrates that the state’s legitimization of these therapies depends on their inclusion in a specific classification system marked by terminological, epistemological and political disputes. Using documentary sources, interviews and historical milestones, we explore the competing meanings ascribed to ICPs, the relationship of these practices with biomedicine and the role played by the concept of “medical rationalities” in the development and legitimization of these policies. The central argument is that the normative language of public policies describes and produces ICPs as a specific category of legitimized care.