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.
Interpretation
The essence of a surgeon's role extends beyond technical skills; it involves understanding, empathy, and decision-making.
Harvey Cushing's quote highlights that the role of a surgeon is not solely defined by their ability to perform surgery with their hands but rather encompasses a broader range of qualities, including critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and the capacity to lead a medical team. This suggests that a physician's effectiveness is determined more by their overall approach to patient care rather than just their technical abilities.
In practice
In a medical conference discussing the qualities of a good surgeon.
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.
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.
People know, or dimly feel, that if thinking is not kept pure and keen, and if respect for the world of mind is no longer operative, ships and automobiles will soon cease to run right, the engineer's slide rule and the computations of banks and stock exchanges will forfeit validity and authority, and chaos will ensue.
I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise.
The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.
We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world.
Asking the proper question is the central action of transformation- in fairy tales, in analysis, and in individuation. The key question causes germination of consciousness. The properly shaped question always emanates from an essential curiosity about what stands behind. Questions are the keys that cause the secret doors of the psyche to swing open.
If people do not know what is going to make them better off or give them pleasure, then the idea that you can trust people to do what will give them pleasure becomes questionable.
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