Reconciling Order and Chaos in the Chiropractic Profession

Reconciling Order and Chaos in the Chiropractic Profession

Last night I attended a lecture from Dr. Jordan Peterson, a PHD and Clinical Psychologist. Some of you are aware of him through numerous avenues and through his recent thrust into politically divided spheres. Not the point right now.  This post is focused on his lectures and his clinical perspective specifically.

He recently wrote a book "12 Rules of Life, and Antidote to Chaos", which yes, '12 rules' is kind of a cliche, however the depth he goes into in "An antidote to chaos" is not. It is a deep book.

At Forward KC I gave a brief lecture styled after that book. I called it "10 Rules to Chiropractic Life" (Because 10 rules are better than 12).  I recommend the Peterson book, I learned a lot about our profession and even ourselves in FTCA through the book, the ideas, and last nights lecture.

Lets combine that with an anonymous survey Kevin Christie and I just recently did. A survey where the NUMBER ONE AND NUMBER TWO RESULTS absolutely shocked me. The question was essentially "What do you fear the most?' 

Number one response to the question was something akin to responses like fearing how "the other side of the profession is ruining it" or "we dont have any respect because of the straights" "MDs not respecting us" "DPTs encroaching on our territory" and a multitude of these types of answers that can be summed up as "other people ruining it all for me"

Well, this completely contradicts the points that Dr. Peterson makes in "12 Rules..." and makes in general in lecture and elsewhere. First and foremost... "Other people" cannot ruin your thing for you. And that same sentiment goes for straights who feel that "mixers" or nontraditional chiropractors mess up their paradigm.  To me so many people were blaming the crux of all the professions problem on the wrong thing.  Outside themselves.  The bigger problems, and the ones you can tangible do something about, rest on the inside and directly around us.  

Dr. Peterson writes about the concepts of Order and Chaos in his book. A lot of times he's referring to the political spectrum, but I saw immediately how this fit into the chiropractic spectrum. Representatives of Chaos within our profession tend to be the "straights". They favor less rule, they favor less organization, they favor less evidence also less science. They favor less answers and more "freedom" to act as they feel fit. They essentially like to act as if they are molding from a lump of clay. They like to take from nothing (Universal intelligence or quantum? Language they use) and make something. 

The irony here is that if chaos is on a far left of a scale, they must always make SOMETHING out of that NOTHING, so they have the proclivity to create order out of their chaos, up to a limit. That limit appears to be within their specific belief system. That is why the 33 principles is so important to them, Before that, any level of chaos is warranted. But it stops once it meets the Hadrians wall of the 33 principles. Then there is a political refusal to cross that line.

Progressive chiropractors (mixers) tend to favor more order, more rules, more legislation, more regulatory intervention, more science. They tend to be agents of order in the profession. The irony here is that as they do that, many within their own ranks destroy that order or hierarchy, and then try to create their own "chaos". Usually in the form of trying to create new seminar series', new explanations or newly wrapped explanations for old concepts. 

However, they only create chaos up to the line they meet with their ethos, which is science. OR at least biological plausibility. Just as straights will create order until they meet the 33 principles, progressives will create chaos up until they violate the lines of science (most of the time).

Take for example, from our progressive end of the scale, "Pain Science". The Biopsychosocial concept of pain has been talked about and researched for decades.  Leonard Faye has been involved with it for 30, 40, 50 years.  Craig Liebenson has written about it in his texts. Waddell wrote about it. We've had it on scientific record for decades. Yet what have we found? New "Pain Science" gurus have sprung up talking about the new concept and idea of pain science. Its not new!

There are multiple examples of this, but it would be difficult to cite them without making reference to specific names of specific people who made this move to create chaos in the orderly side of the profession. Even if for personal gain or notoriety.

However, is creating Order out of chaos bad for straights? Is creating chaos out of order bad for progressives? Not entirely. It is known that too much order can lead to tyranny. It is known that to much chaos can lead to absolute destruction. In our case, the straights are CORRECT to fight against too much order. The progressives are RIGHT to fight against too much disorder in our profession.

On many levels... BOTH SIDES ARE RIGHT!

Now theres another dichotomy working as well in this battle. Straights represent the "old way of doing things", progressives represent "the new way of doing things" Now the roles of order and chaos are flipped. Straights represent the ORDER of doing it as things were designed and not changing the status quo. Progressives represent a new disorder to them of chopping down their old ways and building anew. 

Its really a fascinating mix we have going on here. Both sides essentially play multiple roles in the battle between order and chaos. Most of the players doing it completely subconsciously. Most people dont entirely do this because of money motivations or ethical considerations as we might assume, they actually do it (based on Peterson's interpretation of the data) based in their own personality temperment.

You are on any side of this battle because of who you are. What you believe to a core. I personally believe you can argue anything with anyone in this world. You can debate, you can rationalize, you can appeal to emotion. However, once you begin to discuss core beliefs or ideologies, you can no longer argue, because that is what the person IS, and that will never change and they will defend it to the grave.

Peterson was asked in his lecture, paraphrasing "So how does one side win the battle over the other?"

They dont. THEY DONT. Both sides are essential to one another. To maintain balance. It is an existential tug of war where, if you do it right, everything comes out okay in the wash. That is where we find ourselves. Straights NEED progressives. Progressives NEED straights.

Or as Peterson put it, we all think politically "If we as democrats could just get rid of those republicans, we would have the utopia we've always clamored for", or vice versa. But thats not how it works. Its a checks and balances. The USA has voted 50/50 essentially for these two parties over the last 20 years. It doesn't matter in an overall sense. Politically, if you wish your opponent would "disappear", you're really wishing half the population would disappear? Friends, families, loved ones, colleagues?

The same goes for chiropractic. 

If progressives were successful in removing every single "straight" from the profession, would it make for a better profession? You might think yes, but of course the answer is no. And vice versa. They need each other. Otherwise they teeter towards the tyranny that would choke this profession to non existence with too much order. Or they would evaporate completely with no structure and complete chaos/disorder.

We always say, an entrance exam sure would fix all of our problems. It might or might not. Maybe an entrance exam that focused on personality profiles, sure. Profile types that tend to become straight in thinking, and types that become progressive in thinking (Research project idea for any out there willing to tackle it!). So yes, you could eliminate half the profession based on core values, but would you want to?

Peterson outlines in more ancient marriages the symbolism was meant to show that a man and a woman, when married, entered into a relationship with a third "higher ideal". And depending on your culture that higher ideal could be many things, God, Jesus, Yahweh, Truth, etc. Whatever it was. And then the man and the woman, through marriage worked together to uphold that higher ideal. Thats why people stand under an arch when married, or under a candle, or at an alter. Its a triumvirate. A team of push and pull to work towards an ideal. Checks and balances with an end goal in mind.

Is it the same nowadays? Well thats a different cultural discussion. I'm an online "ordained minister" and Ive married close to a dozen couples. Almost all of them are shocked at the symbolism of the ceremony I expose them too during their marriage. Man would do man stuff, woman would do woman stuff, and for better or worse even that has dissolved from our culture. My point being, not to make cultural commentary, that even us as chiropractors have lost that relationship in our marriage of both sides with a "higher ideal".

The straights do straight things, the mixers do mixer things, and never to they interrelate. And neither of them are focused properly on the higher ideal.

Does that mean we need unity? NO!! The husband and the wife argue. Thats what they do. They constantly battle on how they do things the right way or the wrong way, and they compromise, oriented towards the higher ideals.

What we need are higher ideals!!!

Now, the straights will tell you that we already have higher ideals, the chiropractic principles. Nope sorry, we are telling you, those no longer apply (or maybe never did) as the higher ideals of the profession, as a whole. It is not accepted.

The progressives will tell you the higher ideal is science. Nope, that too is wrong. NOt that science doesn't play an important role in helping us understand the world around us and how we should act within it, it is not a higher ideal for how people should behave. It is merely a powerful tool.

We need, as Peterson stated last night in his lecture, better language towards each other, more specific spelling out of roles. We need to identify the the times and moments we spend the most time TOGETHER, and make those moments as peaceful as possible. While still maintaining our individuality. We dont need "unity" as so many people seem to define it these days, where we all get along and there are no problems. We need better communication and higher ideals to pursue together.

On that note, subluxation. Stay or go? It most certainly is a very POOR way of communicating. To our partners, to the professional public, and on some levels the way it is used, to the general public. Its akin to asking your spouse how they're doing and they say "fine". What the hell does fine mean? WE may have accepted subluxation as lexicon, but it is a BAD lexicon because it has no solid definition. Accepting subluxation as lexicon as we have is akin to just letting your spouses "fine" comment go on. Ignore it, she said she was fine, she must be fine whatever that means, not my issue.

So ive addressed "unity" and ive addressed "subluxation", whats next? How do we make our marriage better?

We sit down together, use better language towards each other. We recognize that we need each other and no one is going anywhere. We demand more from each other. We would want our spouse to be ethical. We would want our spouse to be fair. We would want our spouse to be the best they could be. Because, as Peterson stated, you could win an argument, and your spouse lose, but then youd be married to a loser, and what would that make you?

If we treat our professional relationship as a marriage, and people come to this table honestly, we could win as a whole. If one of the spouses is irreconcilable, then the only logical next thing is divorce. Real talk.

This is not a unity message. I hope people can see the subtle difference between the rainbows and unicorns stylized "unity" that seems to be tossed around these days, and a stable functional marriage or relationship.  Billy Demoss is the equivelent to your spouse chewing with their mouth open at dinner. I dont have to accept that. But me n Billy do have to come to an agreement on a much higher ideal, one that allows me to tell him to quit chewing with his mouth open, or bop him on his bald head and say "knock it off", or one that encourages me to just let it go, so we can get to that higher place together. 

So I apologize if I have very little tolerance for poorly formed "unity" messages. We need better language, we need to do better, together. Neither of us are going anywhere, so don't let that other side own you. Dont be afraid, be involved. And remember as an FTCA member, you ARE an agent of order, but chaos has a place and deserves some respect. Not unity. Just respect.

p.s.  And I know that the relationship between the two sides of this profession is not a marriage.  Its called a metaphor.  Its probably closer linked to a family situation.  We are two brothers or sisters that have to live in the same house together, but really can't stand each other.  That doesn't matter.  The chores still have to get done, we still have to go to all the big celebrations together, we still have to get good grades and take care of each other and our neighborhoods.  Whether we like each other or not, we are bonded, and we might as well suck it up and try to make something good of it.  That takes two to tango however...

Fireside Chat 4/30/18

This fireside chat is hopefully one of many.  These videos are for members, by members.  FTCA Members hang out and shoot the breeze.  We never know what might happen!  There is no agenda.  There is no script.  The format that worked today was that a post is made in the facebook group, and whoever shows up, shows up!  As you can see, some people roll in and some people roll out.

In this episode I am joined by Gregg Friedman DC, and then Blake Kalkstein DC takes us for a ride.  Then at the end Kurt Kippenberger DC jumps on the call to chill.

Now our first fireside chat should be available to all...

https://youtu.be/sA2u8LHWsw0

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FTCA Podcast #4 PART 2 (Members Only) - Dr. Jeff Langmaid - The Evidence Based Chiropractor

Our members only bonus podcast content with Dr. Langmaid can be found here.  Don't have a password?  Get one by becoming a member of this website.  Dr. Jeff is dropping marketing bombs "behind the wall"!
 

Mechanical Assessment Pyramid - Dr. Dino Pappas

In musculoskeletal medicine, lack of standardization is rampant. Ask several different professionals and they'll have different diagnoses, different treatment plans and different techniques/methods to treat patients. This begs the question of do you have ways and what are those ways of processing the exam data to obtain clinical success with patients and outstanding, rapidly-reproducible outcomes?

The following video covers the approach that I like to use. It isn't the only and maybe not the best way, but it's a systematized way to help me sift through the data to help generate outstanding, rapid and reproducible outcomes. What is your approach?

Dr. Dino Pappas

 

FTCA Podcast #2 (bonus material) with Dr. Josh Satterlee

We dive  a little deeper with Dr. Satterlee into the gym/hybrid model and so much more.  For MEMBERS of the FTCA site only!

FTCA Zoomcast 12/10/17

In This Zoomcast (the first uploaded to www.forwardthinkingchiro.com), we discuss associateships and the long game.  Dr. Bobby Introduces for the first time the "Chiropractic Career Quadrants".