Remembering the Essence of Medicine
“Learn your techniques well, but be prepared to let go of them all when you touch the human Soul.” ~ Carl Jung
The ultimate touchstone of being a Physician is to bear witness to another, to see their essence, their possibility for healing and wholeness, and to become a conduit for this, sometimes through knowledge, sometimes through presence, but always through love. To walk with another for a while, and to believe in their possibility for deep healing must always be our primary offering. Once offered, we can apply expertise gained through our training and experience. But the wisdom we gain through our own suffering and from empathically witnessing the suffering of others, is possibly our greatest offering. Consciousness is earned through courageous suffering. It must never be avoided, but endured, even if society believes otherwise. It is the paradoxical gift we earn when we lean fully into experiencing life from the level of feeling.
Being with our patients is indeed sacramental. Becoming a physician is a calling, not a job. Medicine is a sacred vocation after all, and those who choose this path or are chosen by it, must always remember this. The spirit of our vocation is always present in our relationship with our patients.
In corporate medicine, this appears to have been forgotten and the essence of practice has atrophied, replaced by the craving for profit, a destructive archetype that is never fulfilled.
I am hopeful that the moral compass lost in corporate medicine today will pivot back to the depth of our vocation’s purer essence, as physicians yearn for deeper meaning in their work.
It is an honor for me to serve my patients, who entrust me with their stories, their vulnerabilities, and their longings to heal and become whole. We as the entrusted ones must always be mindful of why we chose this vocation and surrender our work to its core essence. It’s the only way we can make a genuine contribution to our world and make Medicine whole again.
©September2024 Kalpana (Rose) M. Kumar M.D., CEO and Medical Director, The Ommani Center for Integrative Medicine, Pewaukee, WI. www.ommanicenter.com Author of Becoming Real: Reclaiming Your Health in Midlife (2nd Edition), Medial Press, 2014. Dr. Kumar is currently accepting new patients. Call 262.695.5311 for an appointment, either virtual or in-person.