In my last essay I wrote about Gerhart Niemeyer who sought to avoid indoctrinating his students in order for them to pursue the true, the beautiful, and the good. In this essay I want to do the same thing but look at one of Niemeyer’s students, John H. Hallowell, as a teacher. Spending almost forty years teaching political philosophy at Duke University, Hallowell during that time published three books,
I love concepts to guide me personally and professionally in life. As part of that navigational walking stick, I like to create acronyms to reinforce my memory. Trepanier's writing consistently prods me in a wonderful way to see the true, the beautiful, and the good (TBG) at different levels of what I call the microcosm-macrocosm of the living universe.
The lack of clear thinking (LOCT) which is emphasized by Niemeyer is a more polite way of describing what ails this country and perhaps the world. I, a product of the streets, call this element the Fractions Unable to Critically Think (FUCT) generation.
In reading what Lee has shared with us about Hallowell, I think about my 57 years in medicine as student-teacher-physician. At one point at the prestigious U of Chicago I was both a researcher, a student, and a teacher of fellow students. At another time I was a researcher with faculty that were either mostly about their own academic greed (Don Rowley) and ego (Henry Rappaport), or true mentors that loved their students and shared their wisdom with them (Kubler-Ross, Joe Kirsner, Alvin Tarlov). In the last 38 years of my life, I have been physician-teacher of my patients. I learned that you have to be in the trenches (of patient care) to understand medicine; you cannot divorce the science from the reality of patient context and really learn. My medical school education was not a learning process until I was involved with the human element. Too much time was lost studying anatomy on a cadaver or memorizing physiology or pharmacology in absentia of patient care.
And what I learned was that the "True" in health relates to the integration of all body systems in a harmonic manner; it is an orchestration of the highest degree ⇢ a true melding of brass, woodwind, and tympany. I have used terms such as bone integrity (BI) or neuronal integrity (NI), etc to define that state of health when all is both "true" and integrated (one). And when this is achieved, it is Beautiful and Good. And this too can be the metaphor of the family, the community, the town, state and country. This is a philosophy of both wholistic and holistic medicine.
So I would not agree with Hallowell that an education in anything equates with thinking about it "first" but rather that participating and thinking should be concordant processes. The only rationale I can think of to support Hallowell is what I felt in my first two years of non-stop didactic at the U of Chicago i.e., I am sick and tired of memorizing the 26 steps in the synthesis of cholesterol. How is this going to help me with patient care? And when I was introduced to patient care I had reached the point of maximal frustration with my medical education (and wanting to abandon it) and was so thirsty for patient exposure that I cherished every moment of it. and embraced it with fervor and commitment. But I really do not think frustration or disenchantment is the path of what education is all about. I came very close to departing from medicine, as per the despondent poem I wrote in 1968, reflecting on the pathology of my so-called educators.
MEN OF MEDICINE
Men of Hippocrates, I too am one,
Now ashamed of what has become
A once noble art turned around
Spiraling quickly from heaven to ground.
Gods we were never, yet closer before,
Now much more base, the art from us torn.
Strive for the heights; compete with each other,
Close eyes and ears to those who smother,
Under ills that mankind gave birth,
To strangle our fellows
And douse out their mirth.
It is time we spoke less of things esoteric,
Filled our hearts with compassion empathetic,
Cried in our souls when we feel others suffer,
Smile and laugh when sick is no more,
Know all men are rich when they seem poor.
-- Hyde Park, Chicago 1968
I believe our world needs more educators that make us think deep and think comprehensively, allowing us to bring together our life's experiences past, present and future to get closer to what is true, beautiful and good. I think the writing of Lee Trepanier is a damn good way to turn on the flame of such a process. My only regret with Lee is that he is my brother-in-law and not my brother. I wonder if Lee's students know how fortunate they are.
I love concepts to guide me personally and professionally in life. As part of that navigational walking stick, I like to create acronyms to reinforce my memory. Trepanier's writing consistently prods me in a wonderful way to see the true, the beautiful, and the good (TBG) at different levels of what I call the microcosm-macrocosm of the living universe.
The lack of clear thinking (LOCT) which is emphasized by Niemeyer is a more polite way of describing what ails this country and perhaps the world. I, a product of the streets, call this element the Fractions Unable to Critically Think (FUCT) generation.
In reading what Lee has shared with us about Hallowell, I think about my 57 years in medicine as student-teacher-physician. At one point at the prestigious U of Chicago I was both a researcher, a student, and a teacher of fellow students. At another time I was a researcher with faculty that were either mostly about their own academic greed (Don Rowley) and ego (Henry Rappaport), or true mentors that loved their students and shared their wisdom with them (Kubler-Ross, Joe Kirsner, Alvin Tarlov). In the last 38 years of my life, I have been physician-teacher of my patients. I learned that you have to be in the trenches (of patient care) to understand medicine; you cannot divorce the science from the reality of patient context and really learn. My medical school education was not a learning process until I was involved with the human element. Too much time was lost studying anatomy on a cadaver or memorizing physiology or pharmacology in absentia of patient care.
And what I learned was that the "True" in health relates to the integration of all body systems in a harmonic manner; it is an orchestration of the highest degree ⇢ a true melding of brass, woodwind, and tympany. I have used terms such as bone integrity (BI) or neuronal integrity (NI), etc to define that state of health when all is both "true" and integrated (one). And when this is achieved, it is Beautiful and Good. And this too can be the metaphor of the family, the community, the town, state and country. This is a philosophy of both wholistic and holistic medicine.
So I would not agree with Hallowell that an education in anything equates with thinking about it "first" but rather that participating and thinking should be concordant processes. The only rationale I can think of to support Hallowell is what I felt in my first two years of non-stop didactic at the U of Chicago i.e., I am sick and tired of memorizing the 26 steps in the synthesis of cholesterol. How is this going to help me with patient care? And when I was introduced to patient care I had reached the point of maximal frustration with my medical education (and wanting to abandon it) and was so thirsty for patient exposure that I cherished every moment of it. and embraced it with fervor and commitment. But I really do not think frustration or disenchantment is the path of what education is all about. I came very close to departing from medicine, as per the despondent poem I wrote in 1968, reflecting on the pathology of my so-called educators.
MEN OF MEDICINE
Men of Hippocrates, I too am one,
Now ashamed of what has become
A once noble art turned around
Spiraling quickly from heaven to ground.
Gods we were never, yet closer before,
Now much more base, the art from us torn.
Strive for the heights; compete with each other,
Close eyes and ears to those who smother,
Under ills that mankind gave birth,
To strangle our fellows
And douse out their mirth.
It is time we spoke less of things esoteric,
Filled our hearts with compassion empathetic,
Cried in our souls when we feel others suffer,
Smile and laugh when sick is no more,
Know all men are rich when they seem poor.
-- Hyde Park, Chicago 1968
I believe our world needs more educators that make us think deep and think comprehensively, allowing us to bring together our life's experiences past, present and future to get closer to what is true, beautiful and good. I think the writing of Lee Trepanier is a damn good way to turn on the flame of such a process. My only regret with Lee is that he is my brother-in-law and not my brother. I wonder if Lee's students know how fortunate they are.