Medicine, Ritual, Empathy and Psychism

[persipone]

A lot's been going on lately, and very little of it has ended up here. That's ok- it means I have a life! Yesterday I went shopping with D, went to L's birthday party, and then went to the EVMS Fall Ball. Today, I had lunch with exedore's friend B, who was in town for an EMS conference. I spent this afternoon in the anatomy lab, being an anatomy

Comments

[bluedoran]

The anthropologist Mary Douglas wrote the better part of one of her books about her belief that western hygeine/medicine functions like a religion, complete with taboos and doctrines. Very interesting.

[persipone]

Yup. One of our instructors actually mentioned medical "rituals" in class, pointing out that the process of the history and physical exam is very different in different countries- they're taught to do it differently, they have a different "ritual" procedure. But they get essentially the same results. The reason every US medical school teaches it pretty much the same way is because it's traditional.