Department of Philosophy, Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA.
J Altern Complement Med. 2011 Sep;17(9):859-65. doi: 10.1089/acm.2010.0766. Epub 2011 Aug 11.
Modern medicine is often accused by diverse critics of being "too materialistic" and therefore insufficiently holistic and effective. Yet, this critique can be misleading, dependent upon the ambiguous meanings of "materialism." The term can refer to the prevalence of financial concerns in driving medical practice. Alternatively, it can refer to "mechanistic materialism," the patient viewed as a body-machine. In each case, this article shows that this represents not authentic "materialism" at play, but a focus upon high-level abstractions. "Bottom-line" financial or diagnostic numbers can distract practitioners from the embodied needs of sick patients. In this sense, medical practice is not materialist enough. Through a series of clinical examples, this article explores how an authentic materialism would look in current and future practice. The article examines the use of prayer/comfort shawls at the bedside; hospitals and nursing homes redesigned as enriched healing environments; and a paradigmatic medical device--the implantable cardioverter defibrillator--as it might be presented to patients, in contrast to current practice.
现代医学经常受到不同批评者的指责，说它“过于唯物主义”，因此不够整体和有效。然而，这种批评可能具有误导性，这取决于“唯物主义”一词的歧义。该术语可以指金融问题在推动医疗实践中的普遍存在。或者，它可以指“机械唯物主义”，即把患者视为机器。在每种情况下，本文都表明，这并不是真正的“唯物主义”在起作用，而是对高级抽象概念的关注。“底线”财务或诊断数字会使从业者忽视生病患者的具体需求。从这个意义上说，医学实践还不够唯物主义。通过一系列临床案例，本文探讨了在当前和未来的实践中，真正的唯物主义将如何展现。本文考察了床边祈祷/安慰披肩的使用；将医院和疗养院重新设计为丰富的治疗环境；以及作为范例的医疗设备——植入式心脏除颤器——与当前的实践相比，向患者展示的方式。
