Other “definitions of osteopathy” by some famous osteopaths:

For Andrew Taylor STILL (1828-1927), founder of Osteopathy

The “rule of the artery” was paramount, the poorly vascularized areas become areas where the function is inhibited.

The role of osteopathy is to intervene on the (or) structures necessary to restore the function.

Osteopathy considers the patient as a unique personality and deals primarily with the individual and not with his symptoms, hence the important role of the interview and the anamnesis.

Secondly, it puts into practice the osteopathic semiology, precise, soft, adapted, taking into account all the personal parameters of the patients (morphology, temperament, gestural attitudes, mimicry, psychic and physical environment, etc …).

Thirdly, she uses the classical symptomatic clinic to exercise a reactive, specific and qualitative medicine.

Osteopathy is therefore an approach of man as a unique example, in a psychophysiological imbalance, through the hand of the therapist. The ultimate goal of osteopathy is therefore to allow the consultant to be free on his supports, whatever they may be, and to begin no longer to exist, but to be.

For John Martin LITTLEJOHN in 1900, student of Andrew Taylor STILL

Osteopathy is this Science or Method of treatment which consists in first of all making the physical diagnosis of the diseases in order to discover, not the symptoms but the causes of the tissue modifications, the obstruction to the circulation of the liquids, the attack on the integrity of the forces of the organism, then the treatment of the diseases by scientific manipulations. The practitioner applies the principles of joint mechanics, more specifically vertebral, and uses the resources inherent to the body to overcome the disease and restore health. This treatment allows the human body to excite its defense reactions and accelerate the formation of antibodies and anti-toxins to achieve healing.

For Professor Irvin KORR, American physiologist

“Man is first and foremost a brain that needs a musculoskeletal system to express itself. This system itself needs to be nourished and freed from its impurities: the blood plays this very important role. In turn, the blood must also be manufactured, purified, enriched and must carry all the necessary nutrients to the needs of each cell, it is the unique role of the visceral machinery to meet these needs. The spine is the axis of life, support that combines its own anatomical structures on the one hand the structures of the spinal cord, on the other hand the brain to all the cells of the body. ”

It is interesting to note that life depends on the blood and its fluidic components in the human body.

For Dr LAVEZZARI (1886-1977) founder in 1952 of the “French Society of Osteopathy”

“Osteopathy is a method of care that, through gentle manual actions on the ligamentous, muscular and nervous tissue as well as bone and visceral structures, is intended to elicit, balance or facilitate a natural reaction that may stop osteo-articular, organic or functional disorders noted “.

For the Encyclopedia Universalis in 1995

“Osteopathy tends to give man full possession of his physiological and psychological potential. It uses a therapeutic technique that aims to re-harmonize the relationships of mobility and fluctuation of anatomical structures by means of precise adjustments.