Smokescreen: alternative/complementary therapies beyond the New Age

Abstract

The use and the offer of the alternatives/complementary therapies are usually associated with the New Age phenomenon. Usually analyzed as part of the New Age movement, I suggest that the insistent association between alternative therapies and New Age has been a problem to make visible processes of legitimation and regulation of such therapeutic practices. I refer to processes that take place at least since the mid-1990s, for example, the emergence of holistic therapists unions, the emergence of a political agenda in Congress dedicated to the regulation of the profession, the teaching of alternative therapies in universities and, finally, the support  and promotion of these practices in the Brazillian public health system. In this article, I analyse part of these processes in Brazil.