Sounds of Healing: Qualia and Medical Efficacy in a Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic

In traditional Korean medicine (TKM) clinics in South Korea, acupuncture is a popular therapeutic practice to remove physical discomforts. This paper examines the cultural-semiotic rendering of an abstract, kinesthetic quality called “shiwŏnham” into medical efficacy through acupuncture treatments, observed through ethnographic fieldwork in a TKM clinic. By employing the conceptual framework of qualia, I argue that shiwŏnham in TKM clinic is the sign of efficacy expressed through the body, both in linguistic and synesthetic forms. The analysis of shiwŏnham also reveals the semiotics of change: the qualitative dynamics of changes-of-state and the cultural change across generations in Korean society.

I examine an extended interaction observed in a TKM clinic, during which a young patient learns to experience and interpret the senses and sounds of shiwŏnham as a sign of efficacy through conversations with an older family member and the doctor. This interaction illustrates how participants attempt to bridge their intergenerational, interpretative gaps about the relevant qualia and the conventional qualisign of shiwŏnham. Together through this semiotic analysis of shiwŏnham, I show how central shiwŏnham is to the expressive evidence for TKM, that is, culturally legible evidence of efficacy reflecting modes of awareness, expression, and the value of a sensation.