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An Ideal-Typical Development of Chiropractic, 1895–1961: Pursuing Professional Ends Through Entrepreneurial Means

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Abstract

An ideal type distinction between professional and entrepreneurial orientations is presented, using the founding Palmer family and their Palmer School of Chiropractic to illustrate how ‘entrepreneurial’ means were used to pursue ‘professional’ ends. Although chiropractic desired the professional goals of autonomy, authority, social distinction, trust and service, it was unable and unwilling to pursue this by emulating the attributes and rewards set by orthodox medicine. Professional (and therefore medicalized) means such as social closure and licensure were eschewed in favor of antipodal entrepreneurial strategies such as status congruence and populist generalism. Chiropractic's proud, maverick pursuit of entrepreneurialism at times represented a more righteous commitment to the ideals and ends of professionalism than was actually displayed by orthodox medicine. For its first 60 years, chiropractic established itself as a separate and distinct occupation that not only refashioned what it meant to be professional, but demonstrated the innovative use of existing resources and the acumen of its founders.

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Notes

  1. As Bürger (1987, p. 87) noted, ideal types are ‘formed by the one-sided exaggeration of one or several points of view and by the synthesis of a great mean diffusely and discretely existing component phenomena which are sometimes more and sometimes less present and occasionally absent, which are in accordance with those one-sidedly emphasized viewpoints, and which are arranged into an internally consistent thought-image.’

  2. Although BJ Palmer repudiated all things medical, this stance was altered slightly concerning technology. Palmer prided himself in delivering chiropractic adjustments by hand alone, but was accepting of technology that would assist in locating subluxations. As the NCM and X-Ray technology were only assistive and not instrumental in delivering that actual clinical care, these were acceptable ‘tools’ to be used by any respecting chiropractor. Other, ‘mixer’ adjuncts like water, heat and electricity were only therapies that would interfere with the ‘pure, straight and unadulterated’ adjustment of a straight chiropractic and so were forbidden.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Andrew C. Twaddle for his input and support on this research.

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  1. Department of Sociology, Texas A&M University-Commerce, PO Box 3011, Commerce, 75429, TX, USA

    Yvonne Villanueva-Russell

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Villanueva-Russell, Y. An Ideal-Typical Development of Chiropractic, 1895–1961: Pursuing Professional Ends Through Entrepreneurial Means. Soc Theory Health 6, 250–272 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.sth.8700104

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