Abstract

GATICA, Nahir Paula de. ‘Micropolitics of well-being’: reflections on the insertion of non-conventional medicine in hospitals. Rev. urug. Antropología y Etnografía [online]. 2025, vol.10, n.1, e102.  Epub June 01, 2025. ISSN 2393-7068.  https://doi.org/10.29112/ruae.v10i1.2437.

The incorporation of “non-conventional medicines” and/or “alternative/complementary therapies” into healthcare services or hospitals is a growing phenomenon in Argentina. Analyzing the ways in which this incorporation manifests in specific contexts allows us to delve into the circulation of diverse knowledge, the interrelation of various therapeutic practices, and the power/knowledge disputes within biomedicine. This also sheds light on how hospital spaces are shaped by internal heterogeneities and dynamics inherent to healthcare work.

This article is based on ethnographic research conducted between 2018 and 2020 in an integrative medicine area within a Public Hospital in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. This space offered reiki, reflexology, and fluid-energetic osteopathy to patients, their families, hospital staff, and the general public. The initiative was experienced by those who participated in it as a holistic approach to well-being, encompassing not only these therapeutic practices but also the spaces and social dynamics generated within.

I will argue that this initiative can be understood as a micropolitics of well-being, an objective social process, an experience that provides valuable insights into how these types of therapeutic practices can be incorporated into biomedical institutions by adapting to the specific logics of healthcare services and the nature of work conducted within these settings.

Keywords : micropolitics; non-conventional medicine; biomedicine; complementarity; alternative therapies.

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