While they were mindful of and grateful for the powerful advances in medicine, they believed that social and economic conditions which influenced the life of a person and a community had a greater impact on a person’s life and health than did the power and might of all of medicine.
They believed that medicine was a profession that involved more than a technical set of skills and a high income. They accepted the responsibility of caring for the whole person; mind, body and soul.
Now The Globe and Mail Life section reveals I could be guilty of hastening my demise by eating fruit. See The New Enemy in today’s paper, which warns that bananas are the arch enemy of the serious dieter and “that the high fructose content makes grapes and cherries as unhealthy as a plate of cookies.” Or not. Depending on which ‘experts’ you believe.
Literature, fine art, poetry, music serve to remind overworked clinicians that they are part of a timeless tradition of healing whole human beings, who present in all their magnificence and complexity. Also, that physicians themselves participate in the tradition of physicians as humanists. Perhaps that’s why a liberal arts education – in my opinion – makes an important contribution to the practice of medicine today.
