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GLIM, Spring 1996, volume 2
Swarthmore College student publications (1874 - 2013)
1996-04-01
reformatted digital
Ze
to self-reliance which leads to self-respect which fosters a liking
of oneself, hence a desire to live.
“Recovery depends on the mobilization of the patient's
mechanism of resistance”(16). Mobilization comes from three
sources: the patient’s willingness to take an active rather than
passive role in combating his malady, a doctor’s sensitivity to
the patient's self—interest, and a trusting communication chan-
nel between the two. All of the aforementioned items appear to
incorporate and coddle the mind rather than the body. This is
as it should be, for Cousins believes in an inevitable link
between mind/emotions and body/health. If endorphins are
released when hugging and cuddling (as I read in an article sev-
eral months ago), and these hormones are supposed to have a
soothing effect on our senses,
then would it not be reasonable
to suggest that an isolated and
alienated patient’s anxiety over
a negative condition would
inhibit their endorphin release
thereby increasing stress, pain,
and a lowered immune system?
This is the cost of negative emo-
tions. “Creativity, the will to
live, hope, faith, and love have
biochemical significance and
contribute strongly to healing
and to well-being. The positive
emotions are life-giving experi-
ences”(86). The doctor can
make or break a sick patient’s
confidence, a scary thought in
the present state of medicine.
The book declares that the med-
ical profession has become too
authoritarian, the role of healer
too mystified. Technological
advances is the principle factor
in the stratification of the doc-
tor-patient relationship.
Gadgets condense time, short-
ening the interaction with the
physician and increasing the
laying on of machines; “technol-
ogy pushes the patient away
from the physician’(135). It
decreases the attentiveness
required of the healer and
replaces it with impersonal
mechanized devices that evaluate the value and worth of the
subject. This is not a forum for positive emotional support.
Patients need dialogue, human contact, and warmth. The wise
doctor is not condescending but treats the patient as an equal
partner in the fight against sickness. The wise doctor engages
and directs the patient’s positive emotions rather than scroung-
ing for empirical evidence. The healer’s greatest role is to
encourage the body’s mental and physical natural resources to
conquer disease. ‘The will to live is not a theoretical abstrac-
tion, but a physiological reality with therapeutic characteris-
tics’(44).
Doctors do not have a monopoly in the life-giving and tak-
ing process. Every decision one makes about the maintenance
of one’s life is factored into the equation of one’s existence. This
attitude requires a long term perspective rather than a short
one, difficult to do in our instant-food, instant-gratification,
existential culture. Speed and quantity is valued more than!
quality and perfection. This results in both physical and psy-
chological constipation: “our experiences come at us in such’
profusion and from so many different directions that they are
never really sorted out, much less absorbed. The result is clutter
and confusion. We gorge the senses and starve the sensibili-
ties”(65). This described life is not so different from the ones
that are often led here within the hallowed halls of our beloved
institution. Some joke proudly about the caffeine consumption
that will most probably take off five years from the end of their
lives; the caffeine consump-
tion is directly proportional
to the amount of blood,
sweat, and X tears shed for
this paper, that exam. We
succumb to viruses en masse,
eat horrible food in vast
quantities, have nervous
breakdowns, conduct nasty,
brutish, and short love affairs
in search of our identities,
break a few hearts to pad our
battered egos, communicate
via tiny messages through
impersonal computers, and
drug ourselves with numbing
alcohol at social events so as
to hide our insecurities and
absolve ourselves of anything
stupid we may doe When |
posited this seeming mass
suicide to another student,
he replied, “Hey, we’re only
human.” Could this be true?
Was The Terminator correct
when he said oh-so-adroitly,
“Tt’s in your nature to destroy
yourselves?” Doctors are
members of the human race
as well; do they deliberately
go against human nature to
save the anonymous victims?
Do we unwitting trot, lem-
ming-like, to them for a
quicker, more sophisticated
means of death (pills, diets, tests, drugs, etc.)? We would be the
foolish ones, paying for our own executioner. overcoming my
initial dismay, I found my notes from the section on Pablo
Casals in which he says, “Each man has inside him a basic
decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is, giv-
ing a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not com-
plicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a man to lis
ten to his own goodness and act on it. Do we dare to be out-
selves?”(79). If one understands the body’s natural tendency to
heal itself without synthetic prodding, then one will also under-
stand the importance of listening to the true human within,
devoid of peer pressure, fear, panic, and stress. It is amazing how
much people appreciate an opportunity to speak freely of how
a
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GLIM, Spring 1996, volume 2
Swarthmore College student publications (1874 - 2013)
1996-04-01
reformatted digital