faqs.org » Abstracts Index » Abstracts » Health

The good things about death

Article Abstract:

Dr. Irvin Yalom, a psychiatrist and author, believes that the living can learn from contact with those who are dying. Doctors must prepare themselves to deal with dying patients. Yalom embraces existentialism, an acceptance of mortality, which releases human beings from the neurotic fear of dying and replaces it with determination to live more fully. For instance, support groups for cancer patients bring out in some individuals superior skills in communicating their feelings and influencing troubled persons.

Psychological aspects, Interview, Death, Psychiatrists, Yalom, Irvin

---

Decline and fall: historian Edward Shorter chronicles the loss of medicine's therapeutic power

Article Abstract:

Dr. Edward Shorter, a medical historian, reports that psychosomatic disorders are common at the present time because people exhibit excessive concern about their bodies. For successful treatment, the patient should believe in the doctor's ability to cure him, and the physician must take time to listen to the patient's description of symptoms and their probable source. During the 1920s, doctors spent far more time listening to patients, instead of the rapid turnover of most 1990s practitioners.

Research, History, Medical care, Authorship, Medicine, Psychosomatic, Psychosomatic medicine, Shorter, Edward

---

Teaching doctors to communicate

Article Abstract:

A course at the American Academy on Physician and Patient teaches physicians to communicate better with their patients. The class, which has received universal acclaim, is offered in week-long and half-week versions. The course includes short lectures and practice with patients and group projects; personal reflection is emphasized. Sixty-eight percent of medical faculty members who take the class suggest some type of curriculum change.

Professional Organizations, Schools & educational services, not elsewhere classified, All Other Miscellaneous Schools and Instruction, Medical Associations, Other Education Svcs NEC, Educational services industry, Education, Physician and patient, Physician-patient relations, Physicians, Medical professions, Study and teaching, Communication in medicine, Medical communication, Medical societies

Some parts © 2012 Advameg, Inc.