At the internationnal congresses in Versailles, Quebec, Russia, Great Britain, Germany, Italy... I had the privilege of meeting and listening to the authors of this book who addressed a subject which paradoxically has too often been ignored in Osteopathy: Bone.
I saw them present a diagnostic method and treatment called Mechanical Link with its different applications, and was struck by the personal and rich qualities resulting from the inter-relationships of these applications.
Most of all, I wish to offer hommage to Paul Chauffour, creator of this method. At the beginning of the 1980's in Maidstone, I had an opportunity to take one of his classes in Structural Osteopathy.
Immediately, I became aware of the extreme privilege I had. In effect, the pertinence of his diagnostic skills, his precision allied with his light touch, the finesse and elegance of adjustment gestures still remain engraved in my memory. His humility and graciousness only re-enforced my appreciation of him.
This journey has been one of the chief landmarks in my osteopathic training. I discovered the importance of proper gesture.
In order to assure further development of Mechanical Link, and its concept of structure, Paul Chauffour has surrounded himself with an extraordinary team, in the French osteopathic world who are diverse, complementary and pluridisciplinary. This team made up of different personalities with undeniable individual qualities, is entirely dedicated to spreading and transmitting the osteopathic concept of Mechanical Link.
Jacques Michaud, Eric Prat, and others like Ildiko Somody Neplaz bring différent facets of personality to this transmission.
In this book, this approach presents and addresses the heart of osteopathic philosophy taking into consideration bone in its global as well as its intimate structure. Along with treatment of the arteries and the autonomic nervous system, this new view of bones completes osteopathic treatment and brings it back to "encountering" the two tissues that Andrew Taylor Still placed at the center of his philosophy: arterial tissue, the most fluid, and bony tissue, the densest. It was within this "encounter" that Andrew Taylor Still's concept was born.
Thus, health can be defined as equilibrium between structural integrity (holistic understanding of the body and its relationship of structure-function) and natural immunity (homeostasis, vitalism).
It is this relationship which describes the concept of adaptability, synonym for health.
The authors of this book apply this concept when searching for primary dysfunctions and dominant dysfunctions giving osseous tissue the position it deserves because of its abilities to adapt to dysfunction. It is well-known that one only finds if one seeks. Taking bone itself into consideration with its possible implications affecting metabolic and biomechanic functions opens the door to permit better focused and more rounded diagnoses, fundamental bases of all treatments.
The structural adjustment (recoil) used by Mechanical Link has allowed structural techniques to reclaim their place in Osteopathy. Unfortunately, over the last fifteen years, numerous osteopaths in Europe and throughout the world have substituted structural approaches with functional and biodynamic approaches.
Too often these functional and biodynamic approach techniques have been used because structural osteopathy is no longer being taught as a rule of the art. Structural osteopathy has become a simple technique denuded of preliminary indispensible diagnostic framework and has often been practiced with too much force.
This work is a brilliant demonstration of the fact that structural techniques have value of their own when applied with intelligence, finesse and precision. "Science without conscience is only the ruin of a soul"…or osteopathically, the body…Dare I paraphrase this citation of Rabelais?
Mechanical link allows a practitioner to evolve his approach and step out of habitual patterns. Treatment becomes a veritable dialogue with tissue and permits entrance into direct contact with body intelligence.
It is for these reasons that the Mechanical Link method and treatment are in perfect agreement with the fundamentals of traditional osteopathy and are congruent with modern concepts of the body developed in theories of biotensegrity and other recent works relating to fascia.
Mechanical Link gives osteopathy true dimension to address health equal to other medical approaches.
Osteopathy possesses diagnostic systems which are unique, with distinct and specific philosophy, along with characteristic therapeutic arsenals and great richness.
The Mechanical Link method should be part of all educational curricula in osteopathic schools and all osteopathic practitioners should possess and be influenced by this book.
Prof. Renzo Molinari. Osteopath DO.
International Institute of Advanced Studies in Osteopathy.
Barcelona-London Faculty of Women’s Health. College of Medicine. London UK.
