Not surprisingly (mis)attributed to Patton, a popular poster in the 1970s showed a cave-man-like brute carrying a huge club, with the caption: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil, because I'm the meanest son-of-a-bitch in the valley."
"Blow-em-up" movies (Terminator, Dirty Harry, etc) are predictable box office hits. But isn't it frightening the degree to which even health-care professionals identify with such fear-based primitive instincts? Don't we also "wage war" on diseases like cancer? Don't we choose leaders who can force through our agendas ie are more brutish than wise? And don't we routinely try to fake cold objectivity, toughness, invincibility, and even infallibility?
"Kindness, humanity, and respect — the core values of medical professionalism — are too often being overlooked in the time pressured culture of modern health care." Chochinov HM. BMJ 2007; 335: 184-7. And the problem is not just "time poverty". How many of us, out of fear, routinely deal with "the real world" armored in aggression & cynicism?
Many of us have become so identified with "doing science", as to almost exclude any ease or joy of simply "being" healthy ordinary humans. If so, don't we need to become more balanced human beings to enjoy life and become more effective healers?
The 1st International Congress on Whole Person Care will be held at McGill University, in beautiful & vibrant Montreal, Quebec, Canada - October 17-20, 2013. "Take the time to reconnect with what healthcare is for you and what it could be…." Themes will be healing, self-care and professionalism - see: www.wpc2013.ca
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| "Clast-o-Lantern" photomicrograph by John R. Kalmar, DMD, PhD |
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