The Necessity of Science and Empathy; For the Sake of Empathy in Clinical Care
Mariana Cuceu, Ph.D., M.D., Afilliated Program on Medicine and Religion, University of Chicago
Peter A. Engel, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Staff Physician, Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Care
Christinel Stefanescu, M.D., Ph.D., University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Gr. T. Popa" Iasi, Romania
This presentation will explore how science and empathy relate to each other and the necessary grounding that comes with this relationship. We will bring into discussion Husserilian phenomenology accessed through the work of Edith Stein along with the anthropology of human spirit viewed through the Eastern Orthodox Patristic tradition. We will look at their applicability to current medical practice as both, Husserilian phenomenology and Patristic tradition through ascetical practice are able to directly form and facilitate the true character of clinical empathy.
It’s alarming how fast doctors’ empathy wanes; we must ask why and to what cost. The medical education system largely ignores the emotional side of health care and future doctors end up distancing themselves from patient sufferance. Yet the dimension of empathy remains crucial to the doctors’ humanity as well as patients’ dignity and can be key to medical efficacy.
Starting from Jodi Helpern’s understanding of clinical empathy and by an analyses and qualification of her work through her resources (in particular Husserl, Heidegger, and Stein) we will present a comparison to both Eastern Orthodox and Latin Christian traditions of ethics and interpersonal encounter and infer how these traditions can foster long term sustainability of clinical empathy for medical care givers. The presentation will also address the following questions: Is there a science of empathy? How do science and empathy relate? For Halpern there are two fundamental realities that she relies on in order to address these questions. Those are introspection and emotional wisdom. We will carefully address each of these and argue for deeper criteria involved in such understanding. The sources used in this analysis matter because in this world of brokenness, where sickness and suffering can overwhelm us, they could offer light and awareness through an inner life existent in each one of us. In the early Christian and Patristic perspective this inner life can be understood to come from a participation or sharing in the divine nature. Since we are made in the image and likeness of God, within this inner life there are sparks of the divine that guide us towards a unity with God through out our daily lives. The daily concerns and other individual past experience may cloud and obscure the divine inspirations which are the guidance to a fuller experience of our humanity. This line of spiritual reflection calls us to empathize with one another through a deeper awareness of ones inner life’s relation to God. One vivid example is St. Paul who speaks about how to stay awake, to become conscious and aware not only about the life of outer senses but especially about our interior senses. This can be understood as a light of discernment that is found through a life of faith and prayer that can and may form the activity of deeper emphatic encounter.
The inquiry presented in this paper will bare light for the contemporary scientific and medical practice and will offer directions of applicability both in the scientific process of research and in clinical encounters.
Peter A. Engel, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Staff Physician, Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Care
Christinel Stefanescu, M.D., Ph.D., University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Gr. T. Popa" Iasi, Romania
This presentation will explore how science and empathy relate to each other and the necessary grounding that comes with this relationship. We will bring into discussion Husserilian phenomenology accessed through the work of Edith Stein along with the anthropology of human spirit viewed through the Eastern Orthodox Patristic tradition. We will look at their applicability to current medical practice as both, Husserilian phenomenology and Patristic tradition through ascetical practice are able to directly form and facilitate the true character of clinical empathy.
It’s alarming how fast doctors’ empathy wanes; we must ask why and to what cost. The medical education system largely ignores the emotional side of health care and future doctors end up distancing themselves from patient sufferance. Yet the dimension of empathy remains crucial to the doctors’ humanity as well as patients’ dignity and can be key to medical efficacy.
Starting from Jodi Helpern’s understanding of clinical empathy and by an analyses and qualification of her work through her resources (in particular Husserl, Heidegger, and Stein) we will present a comparison to both Eastern Orthodox and Latin Christian traditions of ethics and interpersonal encounter and infer how these traditions can foster long term sustainability of clinical empathy for medical care givers. The presentation will also address the following questions: Is there a science of empathy? How do science and empathy relate? For Halpern there are two fundamental realities that she relies on in order to address these questions. Those are introspection and emotional wisdom. We will carefully address each of these and argue for deeper criteria involved in such understanding. The sources used in this analysis matter because in this world of brokenness, where sickness and suffering can overwhelm us, they could offer light and awareness through an inner life existent in each one of us. In the early Christian and Patristic perspective this inner life can be understood to come from a participation or sharing in the divine nature. Since we are made in the image and likeness of God, within this inner life there are sparks of the divine that guide us towards a unity with God through out our daily lives. The daily concerns and other individual past experience may cloud and obscure the divine inspirations which are the guidance to a fuller experience of our humanity. This line of spiritual reflection calls us to empathize with one another through a deeper awareness of ones inner life’s relation to God. One vivid example is St. Paul who speaks about how to stay awake, to become conscious and aware not only about the life of outer senses but especially about our interior senses. This can be understood as a light of discernment that is found through a life of faith and prayer that can and may form the activity of deeper emphatic encounter.
The inquiry presented in this paper will bare light for the contemporary scientific and medical practice and will offer directions of applicability both in the scientific process of research and in clinical encounters.