A physician is obligated to consider more than a diseased organ, more even than the whole man - he must view the man in his world.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of understanding a patient in the context of their entire life and environment, not just their medical condition.
Harvey Cushingβs quote highlights the need for physicians to take a holistic approach when treating patients. Rather than merely focusing on the physical symptoms or the specific illness, doctors should consider the broader context of a patient's life, including their social circumstances and personal experiences. This perspective fosters a deeper understanding of health and well-being, recognizing that medical care is intertwined with a person's environment and individual world.
In practice
During a medical conference when discussing patient-centered care.
In these days when science is clearly in the saddle and when our knowledge of disease is advancing at a breathless pace, we are apt to forget that not all can ride and that he also serves who waits and who applies what the horseman discovers.
I would like to see the day when somebody would be appointed surgeon somewhere who had no hands, for the operative part is the least part of the work.
The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we've learned most of what we know. Recently, we've waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.
I don't think the world will destroy itself in a nuclear cataclysm. On the contrary, we have the capacity to save ourselves and save the planet, and we will use it.
Houses, like people, are apt to become rather eccentric if left too much on their own; this house was the architectural equivalent of an old gentleman in a worn dressing-gown and torn slippers, who got up and went to bed at odd times of day, and who kept up a continual conversation with friends no one else could see.
Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering.
In any dispute, each side thinks it's in the right and the other side is demons.
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