Academies for Unitive Healing
Asklepios,
the ancient Greek god of healing.
This detail from his temple in Epidaurus
reminds us that the Hippocratic
tradition,
and thus western scientific medicine, evolved
from a spiritual/ psychological
concept of healing.
|
It is the most comprehensive job on earth, It
means sympathy with human suffering, |
The Professional Academy
The practice of medicine is currently undergoing a profound upheaval, and many of us physicians are feeling a deep sense of wounding and disorientation. Currents and countercurrents of economic change and reorganization are sweeping away our ability to make independent professional judgments about the needs of our patients. But there are other strains as well.
New findings in physics and psychology about the nature of reality are beginning to shake the philosophical foundation on which we base our work. Further, our patients are turning to "alternative" practitioners in greater numbers than ever before. That means we in medicine are not meeting their needs, especially the need for greater acknowledgement of the human side of healing.
In a recent letter to a medical journal, Dr. David A. Rivera of Deming NM well expresses that "cry of the soul" which so many of us physicians now feel. He writes,
How can we care for our patients when no one cares about us? ... Where is the concern for those [of us physicians] who are still in the system? For those who are trying our damnedest but feel we are abused and neglected? ... We get little respect from our patients, from insurance companies, from hospitals, or from each other.
The journal editor, Dr. Larry Dossey, replies:
I am deeply aware of the pain experienced by physicians currently practicing in the medical and social format of the late 20th century. The pain experienced by physicians is one of our profession's dirty little secrets, which we need to explore openly, and I honor your honesty in doing so. One of the greatest ironies we face is that it is we the physician-healers who need healing. [Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 1997 (July): 3(4):22]
An individually sponsored website such as this can do little about those larger economic and social forces now bearing down upon us, but perhaps it could be a focal point in helping us begin to reestablish respect for each other and a sense of community among ourselves, and help in the healing search for a renewed sense of meaning in our daily work.
A Medical
Reality Check
The Professional Academy
AAKH ! A
Practical Medical Philosophy
Essays on Ethics & Healing
Foundations of
Noetic Medicine, 2002
Healing Thought, 2002
Medical Spirituality
AIH, Academies for Integrative Healing
Copyright, Donivan Bessinger, 1997. All rights reserved. Updated 12 Nov 1997
_