Unpublished PhD thesis, Federation University Australia, 2019/01, , type of study: ,,

Full text    (https://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/vital:15449;jsessionid=BC5FDEC942AFC0A18B5BA9A93499317B)

Keywords:

Australia [175]
F. G. Roberts [1]
history [286]
prosopographical study [1]
T. A. Bowen [1]

Abstract:

This PhD is the first prosopographical study of two generations of Australian manual healers in the twentieth century. The central historical figure is Thomas Ambrose Bowen (1916-1982) a self-titled Australian osteopath and arguably a therapeutic genius turned victim of health politics of the twentieth century. Bowen was stripped of his osteopathic identity as a result of political machinations that occurred during regulation of the industry in the late-1970s and early-1980s. This thesis reveals the legitimacy of Bowen’s claim to osteopathic stature and how his career is representative of the experience of a number of osteopaths during regulation of chiropractic and osteopathy. Bowen’s career was obscured in two respects. Firstly, in the lead up to the Chiropractors and Osteopaths Act 1978, overseas educated interests sought to disenfranchise Australian practitioners. This was offset by a successful response from the Australian chiropractic lobby. Secondly, posthumous commercial popularisation of Bowen’s claimed work, absent observer consensus and historical research, has further served to obfuscate Bowen’s prowess and marginalised his legacy. This thesis is the first to link Bowen’s practice to the influence of F G Roberts, an early Australian pioneer of naturopathic osteopathy. It explores Bowen’s emergence from a network of prominent football masseurs to his professional engagement with osteopathic advocates. This thesis is the first historical study to present the clinical life and times of Bowen among his contemporaries. In doing so it examines his broader significance as a consummate Australian osteopath. New historical narratives founded on extensive primary sources, oral histories as well as discourse analysis, ethnography, biography, hermeneutics and cultural mapping are used to place Bowen in context with his peers on the Australian osteopathic stage. Posthumous narratives that underpin commercial global marketing are challenged to the extent they obscure a clear historical view of Bowen and his marginalised contemporaries as unique actors in their struggle for recognition.