Many of the personality traits and behaviors that help doctors survive the rigors of their training and the stresses of their practices also make it very difficult for doctors to relate to their patients, colleagues and loved ones.
To a surgeon, it may be just another case. But to the patient, an operation—any operation, even a “minor” one—can be a profound and frightening experience, one that requires a deep level of trust. Judith Petry, MD, describes how her own experience under the knife opened her eyes to the need for greater reverence and respect in the operating room.
For much of its history, conventional allopathic medicine has used the language of warfare to describe its methods and practices. Adversarial thinking is deeply ingrained in medical culture. Gladys McGarey, MD, one of the pioneers of the holistic medicine movement, believes it is high time to change that.
No matter how good a doctor is, all of his or her patients will die—someday. Even the doctor, too, is a mere mortal. But medicine has had a very hard time reckoning with this basic fact of life. According to Leslie Blackhall, MD, a geriatric and palliative care specialist, medicine’s denial of death is a major contributor to health care costs.
In an April Fool’s Day parody, David Reilly, MD, a Scottish physician best known for his landmark studies of homeopathy, applies the standards of evidence-based medicine to determine which kind of music is “the most effective.”
The emergence of holistic health care, and particularly Oriental medicine, into the medical mainstream may have befuddled many conventionally trained physicians. It has been equally confusing on the other side of the fence. Practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine, who often find themselves practicing in collaboration with MDs, voice their experiences and concerns.
Holistic medicine is all about humanity and compassion, but one cannot ignore the economic issues raised by the emergence of holistic approaches into mainstream medicine. Practitioners, patients and policy makers are struggling to figure out how natural medicine fits, and who will ultimately pay for it.
Many medical clinics are drab, joyless environments. But they don’t have to be this way. Dr. Barry Sultanoff shows how the principles of Feng Shui, the Chinese art of environmental design, can be easily applied to health care settings, transforming them from sterile and depressing treatment rooms to energized healing spaces.
Pain is a fact of life. Suffering is all of what we add on to the pain: all of the explanations, blame, worry, and fear. In most cases, all these added-on emotions and thoughts do little to help us actually work with painful situations.
Perfectionism, competitiveness, and a sometimes overwhelming desire to do good are very common personality traits among people drawn to a career in medicine. Unfortunately, these very traits can wreak havoc in physicians’ personal and professional lives. Beneath the drive to know everything and always make the right treatment decisions is often a deep insecurity. Dr. Lee Lipsenthal explores the hidden fears underneath the mask of medical authority.
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