ALTERNATIVE MEDICAL PRACTICES - HOMEOPATH Y AND ACUPUNCTURE

How do- the behaviors of the practitioners of homeopathy and acupunctu re compare with general practitioners ? Although the former strongly f eel that they are part of the classical medical profession, they diffe r with regard to the care they propose to well-off clients. The major difference is that they are involved in a new cultural model in the me dical field and that they consider their profession to be a vocation. What is their dominant logic of action? Through their specific profess ional integration in the medical profession, and given their desire to participate in the production of medical care and to restore humanism to the place taken by ''technicism'', their goal is to institutionali ze their alternative medical practices. However a minority are pursuin g a ''logic of rupture''. This analysis is based on Touraine's action sociology.