Foreword to the 3rd German Edition

During the 150 years in the history of osteopathy, numerous approaches have been developed. Andrew Taylor Still, the founder of osteopathy, was far ahead of his times and formulated a number of thoughts that continue to enjoy unchanged validity for contemporary medicine and for osteopathy. It was his desire to warn and preserve the medicine of his times against overly radical specialization and mechanization. He advocated a holistic and individualized perspective in medicine. For this purpose, he emphasized placing the patient at the center of the consultation. His ideal of medicine was to first do everything in one’s power to activate the autoregulatory powers of the patient. It was only when the limits of autoregulation were reached that allopathy should get involved. His first yardstick for the healthy functioning of the human body was movement, in the largest sense of the word. Eric U. Hebgen, the author of the present book, and his teacher Josi Potaznik have grasped the meaning of this philosophy. Especially in our modern world with its host of stimulations and overstimulations, the osteopathic view of the patient is gaining new significance. It offers an extremely interesting approach, in the context of the viscera in particular. The decision to write this book was therefore not far-fetched. To create a comprehensive survey, Eric U. Hebgen has adopted and integrated much information from previous publications by different authors. This book is also rooted in the visceral instructions by Dr med Josi Potaznik, DO, who has collaborated in the development of visceral instruction at the Institute for Applied Osteopathy for a long time. The present book serves not only as a general treatment of visceral manipulation, but also as a guidepost and textbook, describing the organs according to osteopathic criteria in their physiologic movement, defining movement disorders, and presenting pathologic effects.