Medical ethics, boundaries, and why I chose to study Chinese Medicine
peaceofpie posted the following article on his Facebook feed:
Boundary Issues: A Doctor with MS Confides in Her Patient
I definitely have some thoughts on this. Boundaries are hugely important in medical care--it's something we talk about in Chinese Medicine, and it's important all the way around.
However, what jumped out at me was this: "We start our education by dissecting a human corpse, and in so doing, learn early on to separate the body from the person."
We learn to separate the body from the person.
We don't do that--not in Chinese Medicine, generally (though I'm sure there are quite a few TCM practitioners who treat symptoms over patients, and I'm aware that there are some great Western practitioners who use a much more holistic approach to their patients--I've seen a few of them). But we strive to treat the whole person. People are not separate from their bodies; on this plane of existence, we are entwined with our physical bodies. We somatize emotional experiences we can't process, and we emotionalize physical symptoms. It's a fluid continuum between the two, and who's to say where one stops and the other begins? How do we know a physical symptom isn't caused by emotional distress; and if it is, why on earth would we treat only the physical symptom and not address the rest of the person?
This is why I am studying Chinese Medicine and not a Western approach. Chinese Medicine, at its best, treat the whole person: not the symptoms, not physical body only, not separating the body from its emotional and spiritual experiences. I love that.
I also think our boundaries are often a tad more fluid, because we know we're not striving for pure objectivity, which is something we can never achieve even if we want to.
I don't think this physician crossed a line she shouldn't have crossed. I think occasionally that sort of personal experience is necessary, useful and healing. I've had an acupuncturist of mine--one with a definite sense of ethics and boundaries--share a personal story related to something I was dealing with, which did indeed help me to see a situation more clearly and let go of some very confused emotions involved. I think it's a judgment calla s to when to share something, and that we need to be clear that we're doing so because we believe it will help the patient deal with something they're going through. It's when you lose a sense of the patient that you have problems.
More thoughts likely coming later.
Boundary Issues: A Doctor with MS Confides in Her Patient
I definitely have some thoughts on this. Boundaries are hugely important in medical care--it's something we talk about in Chinese Medicine, and it's important all the way around.
However, what jumped out at me was this: "We start our education by dissecting a human corpse, and in so doing, learn early on to separate the body from the person."
We learn to separate the body from the person.
We don't do that--not in Chinese Medicine, generally (though I'm sure there are quite a few TCM practitioners who treat symptoms over patients, and I'm aware that there are some great Western practitioners who use a much more holistic approach to their patients--I've seen a few of them). But we strive to treat the whole person. People are not separate from their bodies; on this plane of existence, we are entwined with our physical bodies. We somatize emotional experiences we can't process, and we emotionalize physical symptoms. It's a fluid continuum between the two, and who's to say where one stops and the other begins? How do we know a physical symptom isn't caused by emotional distress; and if it is, why on earth would we treat only the physical symptom and not address the rest of the person?
This is why I am studying Chinese Medicine and not a Western approach. Chinese Medicine, at its best, treat the whole person: not the symptoms, not physical body only, not separating the body from its emotional and spiritual experiences. I love that.
I also think our boundaries are often a tad more fluid, because we know we're not striving for pure objectivity, which is something we can never achieve even if we want to.
I don't think this physician crossed a line she shouldn't have crossed. I think occasionally that sort of personal experience is necessary, useful and healing. I've had an acupuncturist of mine--one with a definite sense of ethics and boundaries--share a personal story related to something I was dealing with, which did indeed help me to see a situation more clearly and let go of some very confused emotions involved. I think it's a judgment calla s to when to share something, and that we need to be clear that we're doing so because we believe it will help the patient deal with something they're going through. It's when you lose a sense of the patient that you have problems.
More thoughts likely coming later.