January 2004

The WFC is creating a false identity

by Dr. Terry A. Rondberg

One of the most fascinating creatures in the animal kingdom is the chameleon. The ability of this lizard to change colors to match its surroundings is its innate way of protecting itself from danger. It isn't strong enough or smart enough to exist in the world without changing its appearance to suit the situation it finds itself in.

For a lizard, this is a valuable ability. But chiropractic isn't a lizard. We don't have to morph into something else just to survive. We are strong enough and smart enough not only to survive but to thrive, without giving up or hiding our true identity. We're really more like tigers than lizards. We can wear our stripes proudly, knowing we are powerful enough to triumph over the predators who would like to devour us.

Unfortunately, there are people in this profession who think more like lizards than tigers. They believe (and want you to believe) that our profession needs to mask its identity in order to be more secure in the health care jungle.

For years, we've heard such 'lizard logic' from Mr. David Chapman‑Smith, Secretary General of the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC). At a Chiropractic Town Hall in 2000, he told the audience that he sees chiropractic as: "the dominant force for the provision of spinal manual therapies." He then added, "To me, that's a very much bigger vision than simply using your own language talking about adjusting subluxations."

Anyone who is so myopic as to see chiropractic as "spinal manual therapies" doesn't have a vision at all. That became abundantly clear when he went on to state market research has "proven" that discussing the subluxation and its effect on health will not attract patients. The audience booed him at that point.

In a paper titled, "Chiropractic in the 21st Century" he even went so far as to suggest that we stop using the word subluxation altogether, at least in public. He first told how osteopaths changed their profession's terminology, then warned: "Chiropractors must do something similar with chiropractic subluxation ... They must acknowledge that adjustment is manipulation, albeit precise and skilled, and that they do nothing unique ‑‑ they just do an interesting blend of things better."

He summed up his ideas by saying, "All of this metamorphosis is now possible because chiropractic at last has a solid and secure identity. This is not based on anything as shaky as a clinical entity (subluxation) or a single treatment approach (adjustment)."

How many of you think the subluxation is a "shaky" clinical entity? How many of you want to equate subluxation with joint dysfunction, stripping away the neurological component and suggesting that manipulation and adjustment are the same thing? How many of you agree that we do nothing unique ‑‑ just an "interesting blend of things?"

As a tiger, do you want lizards to dictate to you what your identity should be? Yet, this is exactly that the WFC is trying to do.

In Sept. 2003, the WFC announced that it would conduct an "International Consultation on Chiropractic Identity." The press release stated that a 35‑member "Task Force" will develop "surveys" they can use to decide what chiropractic is.

Raise your hand if you already know what chiropractic is. Not what Chapman‑Smith or his WFC colleagues think it should be, or what they think the public wants it to be, or even what their market research tells them would sell best. What it IS.

If the WFC can't figure that out without "surveys" and a "consultation," they should go back and re‑read BJ Palmer's books. Or, since they probably think BJ is irrelevant today, they should talk to real chiropractors who are providing the unique service of subluxation‑correction to patients. Without drugs or surgery, and without pretending to be something they aren't. The WFC leaders and their allies should go out among the tigers rather than slink around with lizards and other reptiles. They'd get a much clearer view of reality.

Please don't think that Chapman‑Smith's advice and 'vision' is an aberration and not something to be concerned about. There are others like him in the U.S. and around the world, and they WILL force the chiropractic profession to camouflage its true identity if we don't fight them.

Take, for instance, Dr. George Carruthers, Past President, British Chiropractic Association, who stated at a recent meeting of the General Council of the European Chiropractors' Union, "Identity is all about the reason why the patient came to see you, not what you as a chiropractor understand you are doing."

WFC President, Dr. Paul Carey, who proudly repeated that quote in his report on the meeting, also stated that "Although chiropractors have a much larger vision for their profession, public identity has to be reduced to a role in health care that is specific and clear to the public."

Ironically, Carey also stated that "if chiropractors don't work on this themselves, others will define identity for us." But is changing our colors to suit what the public thinks of us really defining our own identity? You can't have it both ways.

The fact is, WE have the power to shape our own "public identity" and we cannot allow the WFC, or the public, to shape it for us. As Dr. Warren Gage noted after reading the statements by Carruthers and Carey, "Those quotes are absurd! This would be like a retailer developing a new product, and rather than market the item to espouse its benefits, they simply chose to release it and let everyone guess what it is for!"

Dr. Christopher Kent ‑‑ who, as President of the NGO Health Committee has extensive experience working in the global arena ‑‑ was equally shocked by the quotes. "The suggestion that 'Identity must be determined listening first and foremost to what the public perceives and needs, not what chiropractors want to make the public believe' is outrageous and absurd. If the public thinks lawyers and used car dealers are crooks, does this mean they should become crooks, or work to correct the misconception? The quote of Dr George Carruthers...sends chills up my spine."

Carey also reported the EU group was in agreement that "although the profession should retain its emphasis on drug‑free care, this should not preclude all advice on or use of some medications." Dr. Ofer Baruch, President of the Israeli Chiropractic Society, added his suggestion that "Chiropractors should not be seen by the public as opposed to all use of drugs."

Some drugs are okay? Which ones? Prozac for the working woman? Ritalin for the kids? Maybe some cocaine derivative for the guy with back pain? The notion that some drugs are okay and we should give patients what they perceive chiropractic to be instead of teaching them about the importance of correcting vertebral subluxation is simply wrong.

We have a unique (yes, UNIQUE!) health care service offering lifetime, subluxation‑based, family wellness care. Distorting it into anything else is a sellout and a compromise of our entire historic identity.

We need to proclaim that identity LOUD and clear. We need to send a strong message to the WFC and the entire world that the heart and soul ‑‑ the very essence and identity ‑‑ of chiropractic is the detection and correction of vertebral subluxations.

This is exactly what we are going to do at the 2004 WCA International Summit in Washington, D.C., as well as our Global Summits in Austria, Britain, and Australia. All D.C.s who share our core values should gather with us to help develop legal and political strategies that will promote, defend and protect what we all love: chiropractic as it is, not as medically focused elements would have it become.

Together, at the Summits, we'll develop and share the tools we need to grow and succeed, for as chiropractors become ever more successful at practicing chiropractic in this new century of health care, such ridiculous attempts to pervert who we are will become meaningless.

The lizards have already met. Now, let's have a gathering of tigers.

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NOTE: You are invited to send in your ideas on the identity of chiropractic. Let the rest of the profession know how YOU feel about our unique contribution to human health and wellness!