The Healing Journey

If the relief of suffering is the fundamental goal of medicine, there are at least three ways that this can occur. The most obvious approach, and usually our first instinct, is to attempt to fix the problem that appears to be causing the suffering. A second approach, proposed by Dr Cassell in the previous chapter, is to widen the focus to the function, purpose, and goals of the whole person. This is an important future direction for the development of whole person care that will involve doctors and other healthcare professionals solving a different kind of medical puzzle by learning new knowledge and doing different things in their medical practice. There is a third possibility that does not primarily concern problem solving, knowing, or doing. This way of resolving suffering is a natural potential of whole persons, which we call healing. CD’s experience at the start of the book is an example of this ­phenomenon. Let me give you an example from my own life.