Humanism and Medicine: Quo Vadis
摘要
Medicine has been searching for ways to give a better voice to its intrinsic humanism within what may at first appear to be a wall formed by powerful empirical foundations. What directions should medical education follow in seeking this voice? In this chapter, it is argued that the humanism in medicine is already in the medicine. It is to be found in the experiences of its practitioners and its patients. What is needed, more than just adding additional humanities to the curriculum from the outside, is a recognition of the primacy and the value of these personal experiences, developed using the skills and methods that humanities have employed for centuries. Educational programs should cultivate methods for giving voice to this authentic experience, exploring it, and learning from it so that it can take its rightful place among the other learned disciplines from which medicine shapes its unique integration of science and humanism.