Though often used interchangeably, the terms, medical 'self-care" and "holistic medicine" are not at all synonymous. Self-care is an attempt by ordinary people to learn and use medical techniques for themselves. It is a reaction to the systematic disempowerment of patients within contemporary medical institutions. But self-care does not necessarily involve a critique of contemporary medical science itself. Holistic medicine, by contrast, does begin with a critique of medical science, and proposes an alternative direction. Holistic medicine rejects not so much a certain social role, I will argue, as a certain metaphysics.