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June 1, 2009
In this technology mediated culture, there is not much space left for a face-to-face or humane relationship between the doctor and the patient. No wonder, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a doctor who talks, communicates, cracks jokes, and shares his knowledge with the patient. That is precisely the ambiguity which is inherent in the ethos of modern medicine. To put it clearly, we come across ‘skilled’ doctors and not necessarily profound healers. It is absolutely necessary to rethink the discourse of modern medicine. We know that great philosophers – ranging from Ivan Illich to Michael Foucault have sensitized us that doctors have assumed extraordinary powers in classifying, hierarchising and normalizing the population. And even before them, Mahatma Gandhi was able to visualize the danger of modern medicine causing the death of ‘soul-force’ and all traditions of self-healing. In fact, modern medicine needs to be introspective and self-critical. It is important for the practitioners to realize that healing is essentially an art, not a technological spectacle. This is not to negate the role of technology. A surgeon needs to experience the meaning of physical pain, suffering and death. He needs to develop a high degree of empathy to make sense of this domain of human misery. Only then it is possible for us to come across doctors who, far from being specialists, are essentially real healers.
