The uncontrolled variable

Abstract

Several weeks ago I had the privilege of hearing a practitioner of some fifty years' experience lecture to a group of medical students on the art of practicing medicine. His general theme was that despite the great increase in scientific knowledge that had taken place during his lifetime, the doctor‐patient relationship had not diminished in importance. He was not a therapeutic nihilist and neither am I.

Therapeutic Aspects of the Doctor/Patient Relationship

“…Overlapping and affected in his activities, as he will increasingly find himself; by biochemists, physicists, technicians, geneticists, social scientists and oth ers, he will need to look carefully at the contribution he can make. He will need to learn from these sciences, develop sophisticated human ecological approaches [9,49] to disease and reconsider his vocational position [2,18,35,41].…”