Wisdom and the art of healing

Byline: Zbigniew Szawarski (1) Keywords: art of healing; clinical judgement; good physician; medical knowledge; trust; wisdom Abstract: The concept of the art of healing is intrinsically connected with the idea of healing powers. There are at least three possible approaches to that idea and all of them have different implications for the problem of medical wisdom. These are: the idea of the healing powers of nature, the idea of the healing powers of science, and the idea of the healing powers of physician's personality. Having critically discussed those ideas I sketch an ideal of a wise physician as someone who has a particular kind of knowledge, good judgement, and self-trust. Medical knowledge is certainly a necessary condition of being a wise doctor but it is not the sufficient one. And this is why patients generally prefer to seek help of 'naturally wise physicians'. Author Affiliation: (1) Institute of Philosophy, Warsaw University, Krak, PrzedmieoAcie 3, 00-047, Warszawa, Poland Article History: Registration Date: 18/10/2004