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Aiden Coleman

Professor Kergaye

Chemistry 1210

November 14, 2023

A Falsis Principiis Proficisci

Ab Inito

Through the beginnings of medicinal practice, the application of religion to treatment was

commonplace. Illness was thought of as supernatural such as religious figures, hexes, or

interaction with the accursed. A common diagnosis is that in divine displeasure, in which a given

person would become plagued as a result of sacrilege however moderate. The early treatments of

such ailments were similar, as the ill would often resort to prayer, bloodletting, or leeches to cure

these troubles.

The course of medicine would be drastically shifted with the revolutionary ideas of a

string of brilliant Greeks who planned to offset the current equilibrium of treatment. The first of

these great men is Hippocrates, so vital to history in fact, that he received many palatial

denominations: “The Father of Medicine”, “The Great Physician”, and one gift from the great
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philosopher to follow, Aristotle, “The Great Hippocrates, The Wise Physician”. Hippocrates was

notable in three primary factors, the written records of his practice, the application of ethics to

medicine, and the invitation of naturally caused illness. The tangible proof of his work, known as

the Hippocrates Corpus, is a collection of 60 medical books that serve to teach and instruct

practitioners in several different fields of medicinal practice. His application of ethics into the

world of medicine resides in the pledge that he heavily influenced the creation of, known as the

Hippocratic Oath. This vow bound all those who took an interest in becoming physicians under

their mighty god and disallowed all acts of malevolence in the field; many of the pledges are still

utilized in the oaths that modern-day doctors must go through. His last and most influential

accomplishment was the belief of ailment through natural cause, rather than one of divine

intervention. The separation of religious beliefs and practical medicinal ones would prove to be

the greatest development moving into a revolution of science. As the spark that lit this fuse,

Hippocrates was a crucial figure. Another man who withstands the sands of time is one of the

singularly most influential philosophers throughout time, Aristotle. Aristotle believed that the

greatest form of medicine was a regulation of the body, a balance that can be achieved through

lifestyle changes. He presumed that a routine of bodily movement and self-care is essential to

treating disease and is famously quoted as saying “The physician heals, nature makes well”

(AzQuotes 2014). His second great contribution is his attribution of organs to certain functions

of the body, which until this point in history had been disregarded as the vast majority had

believed that the body was unison. Aristotle was able to relate several functions of the human

body and to organs, such as those responsible for breathing said to be the lung, esophagus, and

windpipe.
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For the next millennium, the works of Hippocrates and Aristotle would remain silenced

as the cause of illness remained stagnant as many retained the old beliefs, however, the treatment

of which had been swapped into the heavy application of certain herbs. Throughout this time

several notable swings would occur that would change the direction of medicine for centuries.

The first was the Romans who would establish a system of basic health care for their people and

their soldiers. The Romans were able to bring sanitization and general cleanliness to their

population through the use of sewers and aqueducts. The second was the devastation of the Dark

Ages where the use of science and medicine was prohibited. During the long four hundred years

that the Dark Ages spanned, the remedies of illness were regressed to basic prayers and the life

span reduced back to a meek twenty years, the worst that it had been since 1000 B.C.E. The last

of the major periods was that of the Middle Ages when the world would progress and work out

of the four centuries of hell that befell them. A notable factor of the Middle Ages was the acute

spreading of several types of plagues and illnesses which include the following: smallpox,

diphtheria, tuberculosis, typhoid, malaria, and the bubonic plague which together accounted for

seventy to eighty percent of mortality during this one thousand year span. Throughout this span,

several forms of treatment were used, prayers, priests’ blessings, penances, pilgrimages, leeches,

poultices, potions, and herbs. The first Hospital, Ospedale di Santa Maria Della Scala, functioned

from 1236 to 1996 and was one of the most brilliant steps in the direction of universal health care

(granted, we have not even come close to this eight hundred years later). Towards the end of the

Renaissance, a brilliant discovery was made that would significantly change the methods that

physicians would employ for the eons to follow. It was in 1628 that William Harvey made the

single most crucial discovery in medicine up until this point in history, the path that blood flows.

Following the repeating pattern of innovation, the population was enveloped in skepticism and
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the theory was not officially dictated as true for several years. However, his logical and cohesive

points made it hard for many scientists to dispute, so after running several tests to conduct the

truth in his experience. This change would forever alter medicine as “Not only did it initiate the

field of physiology, but it also introduced the principle of experimentation in medicine” (Frieland

2009). The development of physiology, the way the body functions, was a crucial change in the

world of medicine as it pushed doctors and physicians into a change, a much-needed thing in

patient care. Experimenting in medicine was a large leap into the light as it allowed many more

specialized and viable treatments; this was the greatest shift into modern medicine. The final

change and greatest revolutionizing of medicine came during the period of enlightenment a mere

one hundred years later, a time of separation. The Enlightenment was categorized as the great

division, a time when quantitive data and speculative theory became untangled and it

individualized.

Ad Finem
The period of Enlightenment drastically changed the ideas and concepts of medicine as it

was known, entirely splitting the divisions between superstition and data. With the division of

the Humanities and the Sciences, humanities became a completely subjective field and science a

completely quantitive one, after all, nobody could argue about a measurement. Resulting from

this, the medical aspect was entirely shifted to measurable sources and the humanitarian aspect

was left behind. Following the change, every aspect of treatment became more specialized,

including hospitals, occupations, and prescriptions (most of which had changed to focusing on
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organs). A concept following similar principles arose from the field, the idea of competence in

the sciences. It became that students were selected for their scientific prowess and thus an idea

began to brew. It rapidly became the belief that better scientists would lend better doctors and

physicians, and thus the communication and humanistic aspect of treatment began to fade.

In the modern day, real medicinal education begins after college and in acceptance to any

variety of medical schooling; at the dawn of their educations, students are called into the

dissection room to begin an anatomy lesson. Students' first introduction to a patient is in the

necropsy of a cadaver, peeling the layers of the facial skin back and identifying nerve pathways,

but often the layer of skin is not reinstated. It is so often forgotten to replace the skin, to identify

the emotion, the signals of struggle, stress, and anxiousness that resides there. Physiology in the

modern era is learned through the study and the dissection of frogs within our labs, we study

their arteries, veins, and so forth. It has become so common to intertwine the ideas of frog

anatomy with that of our nature that we begin to see people as frogs. We grow to understand the

processes of the body, and we grow to understand the chemistry that composes us as human

beings, but we often neglect the chemistry of relationships. We remember that the brain is the

center of man and we understand the processes that occur inside, yet we do not understand the

sourcing of such problems, many more psychosomatic than in definition. We think of our

patients as cadavers with a heart and liver and so forth, but we do not understand that within that

heart lies a soul, the more important of the two. Since the split of humanistic factors from those

of scientific, the constructs of doctor-patient relationships diminished significantly, and the

doctors that were chosen purely off scientific intelligence struggled to forge such bridges. For
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example, let us take the case of a given patient. Take a second with the symptoms and make a

diagnosis.

- The patient is a 53-year-old man

- Heavy night sweats

- Weight Loss

- Minor Seizures

- Irregular bleeding or bruising

- Heavy fatigue

- Brain Fog

- Slight loss of vision and hearing

Taking all of these factors into account we could assume that the patient in question is in the

early stages of brain cancer. However, a problem arises when the patient, whom we will name

Tomas. Tomas is not the patient with cancer down in the third room down to the right but Sophia

is a person just like yourself. When Tomas is diagnosed, she will not ask if this is a primary or

metastatic tumor or how cancer works, these questions are not on his mind. He might ask, will

my wife leave me for somebody without so many problems? Will I still be able to provide for my

family? Am I going to be able to afford treatment? Am I going to die? We tend to seek

immediate relief for the patient, admit them to drug therapy, to neurosurgery, to get them into

chemotherapy. Perhaps even she has a young boy, he wonders, am I going to be able to provide

for him? Am I going to be able to watch him grow up? Will I get the chance to see him graduate?

These questions cannot be answered algorithmically, the way we were taught in medical school,
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but rather these questions must be answered on an interpersonal level from man to man, rather

than doctor to patient. “Every patient wants their doctor to be academically prepared—to know

the medicine that they need to know,” says Darrell Kirch, president, and CEO of the Association

of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). “But equally important, they want their doctors to have

personal attributes that contribute to their professionalism—what a patient might call their

‘bedside manner.’” (Suttie 2015). Clinicians today become so enveloped in the idea that

academics constitute a great doctor that they fail to understand the importance of amicability in

the field. As our doctors and seemingly more of our nurses lend themselves to this idea, the

concept of the patient becomes progressively inanimate; our comrades are treated as

algorithmically solvable problems.

A Minore Ad Maius

With such pressures in healthcare environments, doctors face numerous challenges that

extend beyond their medical expertise. Patients not only seek accurate diagnoses and effective

treatments but also desire empathy, understanding, compassion, and emotional support from their

healthcare providers. Recognizing the significance of emotional intelligence in the doctor-patient

relationship is imperative to explore strategies for better educating doctors in this essential area.
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By incorporating E.Q. (a measure of the understanding, application, and management of one's

emotions) training into medical education curricula, we can foster a generation of physicians

who possess the interpersonal skills necessary to provide compassionate and patient-centered

care. Emotional intelligence encompasses the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and

express emotions effectively, both in oneself and in others. Doctors with a high level of

emotional empathy can empathize with patients, communicate effectively, navigate challenging

situations, and cultivate meaningful therapeutic relationships. While medical training

traditionally emphasizes technical skills and clinical knowledge, the importance of emotional

intelligence has gained recognition in recent years as an integral component of comprehensive

healthcare. a

Primarily, Medical schools should incorporate emotional professionalism education as a

core component of their curricula. Courses focusing on self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy,

and effective communication skills should be introduced early in the educational journey. The

application of the biopsychosocial approach, a blend of biological, psychological, and social

perspectives, to medical schooling would drastically alter the way that we view our patients and

thus strengthen relationships between them. Emotional intelligence is best cultivated through

hands-on, experiential learning. Medical schools can incorporate simulated patient encounters

and role-playing exercises into their curricula. These activities provide opportunities for students

to practice active listening, empathy, and effective communication in realistic healthcare

scenarios. Feedback and guidance from experienced faculty members can further enhance

students' emotional intelligence development. By highlighting the significance of emotional

intelligence from the outset, future physicians can develop a strong foundation in interpersonal

skills that would leave them in a league above their colleagues; not only further improving upon
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their careers, but also their lives. In a similar vein, the next step towards improvement is in the

creation of a thriving ecosystem with an abundance of emotional intelligence beginning with

faculty members and practicing physicians serving as role models. Medical schools should

encourage faculty members to exemplify and prioritize emotional intelligence in their

interactions with students, colleagues, and patients. By observing compassionate and emotionally

intelligent behavior in their mentors, medical students are more likely to adopt these qualities

and integrate them into their practice. Further along these lines, clinical professors should

prioritize incorporating comprehensive psychology courses into their curriculum, ensuring that

faculty members receive in-depth training in psychological principles and theories. This would

equip them with the necessary knowledge and tools to effectively integrate psychology into their

teaching and provide holistic patient care. Examples of theoretical prerequisite classes may

include, PSY 3060 – Developmental Psychology: Adulthood*, PSY 3056 – Social Psychology,

PSY 3082 – Mind, Brain and Behavior, PSY 3081 – Cognitive Psychology, and PSYCH

248-Health Psychology. The last and most vital to making a change to the system place is one of

interprofessional integration. Healthcare is a collaborative field, requiring effective teamwork

among various healthcare professionals. Medical education should encourage interprofessional

collaboration by providing opportunities for students to engage with other healthcare disciplines,

such as nursing, social work, and psychology. Collaborative learning experiences foster mutual

respect, empathy, and effective communication, enabling doctors to work seamlessly within

interdisciplinary teams and improve patient outcomes.

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