The Holistic Myth: How the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Market Shapes a Unified Consumer Culture[Le mythe holistique : Comment le marché des médecines non conventionnelles structure une culture de consommation unifiée]

This paper explores how the complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) market shapes consumer cultures by fostering a unified holistic perspective. While CAM is often associated with cultural pluralism and a fragmentation of therapeutic practices, we argue that it is underpinned by a cosmological myth. This myth, centered on concepts like energy and holism, harmonizes diverse practices and narratives by streamlining the complexities of health disorders and therapeutic journeys. Drawing on ethnographic and netnographic research conducted between 2020 and 2023, we show how consumers engage with these narratives to navigate a diverse marketplace and create meaning in their health-seeking behaviors. Our findings challenge traditional views of myths in consumer culture as purely diverse narratives, suggesting instead that they can also act as powerful unifying frameworks in complex social contexts.