What Are Traditional Medicinal Substances When Separated from Traditional Ways of Life? 

The UC Irvine Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing Center for Nursing Philosophy and UCI
School of Humanities Center for Knowledge, Technology and Society were pleased to
co-sponsored their third annual joint colloquium.
The virtual webinar panel presentation was titled "What Are Traditional Medicinal
Substances When Separated from Traditional Ways of Life?" The event, held Thursday
February 23, 2023, featured Mark Lazenby, Dean and Professor of Sue & Bill Gross
School of Nursing at the University of California, Irvine. Dean Lazenby is an
international expert on psychosocial cancer care, has studied the spiritual support of
cancer patients from minority religious backgrounds and the implementation of
emotional distress screening in routine cancer care.
In this talk, he focused on the trend in integrative health to identify and apply in
conventional treatment modalities medicinal substances used, for instance, by
indigenous people groups. Dean Lazenby introduced Pierre Hadot’s understanding of
“way of life" to argue that separating a medicinal substance from the way of life in
which it had its original application changes the substance’s mechanism of action.
The event was chaired by Tyrus Miller, the dean of the School of Humanities and a
Professor of Art History and English focused on the innovative art and literatures of the
20th century. Both Duncan Pritchard, distinguished professor and director of the
Center for Knowledge, Technology and Society, and Center for Nursing Philosophy
Director and Associate Professor Miriam Bender moderated the Q&A session. There
were 82 registrants from across the globe.