Alternative Therapies Archives

November, 2009 - VOL. 15, NO. 6		November, 2009
Putting Healing Into Healthcare Reform: Will Physicians and Healthcare Practitioners Lead?
Wayne B Jonas, MD; David P. Rakel, MD
William James, founder of modern psychology, was one of the most brilliant scientific thinkers of the last century. As professor of Psychology at Harvard University, he continuously showed both the curiosity and the courage to evaluate new and emerging concepts and discern their importance. A favorite quote from William James made over 100 years ago is the following: Round about the accredited and orderly facts of every science there ever floats a sort of dust-cloud of exceptional observations, of occurrences minute and irregular and seldom met with, which it always proves more easy to ignore than to attend to. . . . Anyone will renovate his science who will steadily look after the irregular phenomena, and when science is renewed, its new formulas often have more of the voice of the exceptions in them than of what were supposed to be the rules. To modern-day biomedicine, the importance of “healing” and “caring” have remained in Dr James’ dust cloud. Is it possible that “healing” and “caring” could emerge from that cloud and sow the seeds of true healthcare reform? Could they become the rules?
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