Reflections on the JCM's 30th Anniversary

It gives me great pleasure to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Journal of Chinese Medicine which has played such an important role in the development of Chinese medicine in the West. The following article is a random collection of thoughts generated over the course of 35 years of practice. They are presented in no particular sequence and therefore the order in which they are discussed does not necessarily reflect their relative importance in my mind. First I consider a subject which has occupied me over many years, namely the differences between the traditional Chinese (mainly Confucian and neo‑Confucian) view of the emotions and that of our modern post‑Freudian societies. Secondly, I consider the phenomenon of needle sensation (deqi) and suggest that it can, in part, be replaced by careful point selection. Finally I consider pulse diagnosis, and especially the question of whether the pulse can ever be discounted, even when it appears to contradict other clinical findings.