Traditional Chinese Medicine - a tradition built on myths, or science with a different approach?

This thesis discusses the image of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) both in China and around the globe, in present day and historically. In the first part, the main ideas and theories of TCM, as well as its origins and development, are introduced. Later discussion includes criticism from the West, biomedical judgment towards TCM, and a comparison of biomedicine and TCM. It was concluded that Western medicine (WM) and TCM cannot be measured and compared by the same methods: while the former is quantitative, the latter is rather qualitative and measuring it using quantitative methods may prove inaccurate. Keywords: TCM, WM, Biomedicine, Placebo, efficacy, healing, medicine