From Doctor to Healer:
The Transformative Journey
Robbie Davis-Floyd and Gloria St. John
New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998, 293 pp.
Cloth: $50.00 Paper: $20.00
This book can be ordered directly from the publisher at 800-446-9323.
Description of Book:
Why would a physician who has undergone seven full years of rigorous medical training, and is making a very good living practicing conventional medicine, take the trouble to seek out and learn to practice alternative methods of healing such as homeopathy and Chinese medicine? From Doctor to Healer answers this question as it traces the transformational journeys of physicians who move across the philosophical spectrum of American medicine, from doctor to healer. Robbie Davis-Floyd and Gloria St. John conducted extensive interviews to discover how and why physicians make the move to alternative medicine, what sparks this shift, and what beliefs they abandon or embrace in the process.
After outlining the basic models of American health care-the technocratic, humanistic, and holistic paradigms-the authors follow the thoughts and experiences of forty physicians as they expand their horizons, taking quantum leaps in their ability to offer effective patient care. The book focuses on the radical shift from one end of the spectrum to the other-from the technocratic approach to holism-made by most of the interviewees. Because many American physicians find such a drastic change too threatening, the authors also address the less radical change to humanism-a movement toward compassionate care arising from within the medical system.
Abbreviated Description of Contents
In the Introduction, the authors explain the meaning of the word "paradigm" (a story about reality, both a model of and a template for experience) and introduce their forty interviewees, all successful physicians who have made significant paradigm shifts.
Chapter 1 describes the origins and the twelve basic tenets of the technocratic model of medicine (or technomedical model, for short). Based on the principle of separation, this model sees mind and body as separated and defines the body as a machine. This separating approach objectifies the patient and privileges technology, leading to technomedicine's over-focus on the expensive quick fix at the expense of the possibility of the long-term cure.
Chapter 2 analyzes medical training as a rite of passage during which medical students are thoroughly indoctrinated with the basic tenets of this technomedical model. The authors look at gender as an issue in medical training, which traditionally has been intensely patriarchal, as is the technomedical model itself; thus women often experience medical school as a double whammy. Some students successfully resist internalizing the techomedical approach; through their stories the reader can see both the power of the medical socialization process and the creativity of those who find another path even as they are learning the basics of their trade.
Chapter 3 describes the humanistic model of medicine, also known as the bio-psycho-social model. This paradigm stresses the connection of mind and body, defines the body as an organism, not a machine, and treats the patient not as an object but as a relational subject. Partnership and teamwork between doctor and patient, a kind and caring approach, conversation, and mutual respect and understanding soften the hard edges of the technomedical approach, allowing patients a voice in their own care and the healing that comes from respect and individual acknowledgment.
Chapter 4 tackles the wild and woolly reaches of the holistic model of medicine, which defines the far end of the American health care spectrum. Proponents of this model see mind, body, and spirit not merely as connected, but as One, and define the body not just as an organism, but actually as an energy field in constant interaction with all other energy fields. Thus this model stresses healing the whole person in whole life context, and provides a powerful theoretical basis for energy-based healing modalities such as Reiki healing, homeopathy, and therapeutic touch.
In Chapter 5, "Catalysts for Transformation," the authors discuss the primary factors and life events that motivate physicians to begin their journey across this spectrum. The first catalyst is frustration with the limits of technomedicine, which cannot heal the vast majority of the chronic illnesses that plague millions of Americans. The second is learning from their patients--some doctors find that after years of unsuccessfully treating people with a chronic disease like multiple sclerosis or diabetes, suddenly the patient appears in their office healed. Asking how this happened can lead the open-minded physician into deep exploration of other modalities that do have great success with the diseases technomedine cannot cure. Personal illness or the illness of a loved one can start a physician down this transformational path, as can a series of synchronicities that, one-by-one, coax her out of her narrow technomedical worldview.
In Chapter 6 we hear the individual stories of five physicians who made this paradigm shift. We accompany them on their journeys as take their first tentative steps by suggesting dietary changes to their patients, like giving up sugar and caffeine and eating organic foods. This sort of long-term lifestyle change makes such a dramatic difference in the patient's health that the physician feels compelled to learn more. Reading, talking with people, attending conferences he never would have been caught dead at before, he finds himself growing and changing, until one day he realizes that he cannot keep on practicing medicine as he did before. Sometimes this realization leads to an existential crisis, a "dark night of the soul," as the physician struggles to find his way. He may stop practicing altogether for a year or more to travel and explore. Following the chain of synchronicities wherever it leads, he may learn new modalities, eventually returning to practice revitalized and starting anew, often by opening a wellness center where he can work with the many other types of healers he has now come to respect.
Chapter 7 takes a look at the realities of "Practicing Holistic Medicine in a Technocratic Society," and finds it to be full of the joy that comes with true personal growth and self-fulfillment. Chapter 8 offers a vision for the future of health care in the future society, one based on personal responsibility and the possiblity that the holistic paradigm will both transcend and include the other two, incorporating the best of technomedicine and the caring of humanism into the holist's broad embrace of multiple modalities, from nutritional therapies to energy medicine, in the best interests of a healing world.