"The emergence of Eastern medicine in the West is undoubtedly influencing the choices of people living in the West in order to maintain or regain their health. We can confidently hope that these techniques and procedures, which can protect us from unnecessary suffering, will soon become widely spread in clinical practice.

The encounter of Eastern medicine with the West also provides an opportunity to explore some of the fundamental paradoxes of health care. With its emergence, the central dilemmas of Western medicine have received dramatic emphasis: what comes first in medicine - wisdom or knowledge, art or technology, values ​​or facts, spirit or body, preservation of the past or creativity in developing the future, sensitivity or scientific objectivity? Honest processing of such questions can also help to improve health care.

I hope that the Hungarian edition of "Traditional Medicine" will be helpful in the practical application of Chinese medicine, including intellectual and moral issues. I look forward to the fact that more Hungarians will be able to contribute to the elaboration of the practical and theoretical controversial issues that the emergence of Eastern medicine has brought to the surface in the West."

Ted J. Kaptchuk