Volume 19, Issue 1
NAMAH Journal Volume 19, Issue 1
Articles in this Issue
Memory transference in organ transplant recipients
By Sandeep Joshi - Apr 24, 2011
There is a physical side and an occult side to everything. This article discusses both sides of the coin with regard to organ transplant and its effect upon the recipient’s personality.
The metaphysical foundation of Integral Health
By Soumitra Basu - Apr 24, 2011
In the second and third chapters of The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo dwells upon the materialistic basis of Western culture, vis-à-vis the ascetic dimension in Eastern culture. It is necessary to understand the differentiation to construct a greater and fulfilling Matter-Spirit synthesis. It is also interesting that this differentiation helps us to understand the different perspectives of health and well-being in the East and the West.
Disease — the inner disharmony
By Y.V. Chawla - Apr 24, 2011
Modern medical theories maintain that germs and viruses attack the body and a lethal attack on them is the only remedy. These theories (by definition) mean a constant battle for the human being, because the source of infections is not traced. The cellular theory of Beauchamp, which has not found favour with modern medical practitioners, states,
Becoming a physician
By Unknown Author - Apr 24, 2011
I watch the second-year students file into the Ether Dome for their first day of my Patient–Doctor 2 course. For me, this course marks their true entry into medical school. Here, they will refine their history-taking skills, building on their knowledge of pathophysiology and disease; they will learn how to perform a physical examination; and they will touch a living stranger’s body as clinicians for the first time. For them, right now, these are just skills to be learned. They do not see how they will be transformed by them. They know that these newfound abilities will open the door to clinical medicine. They do not know how utterly changed they will be by crossing that threshold. Last year, they took Patient–Doctor 1, which teaches the essential framework of history-taking and interviewing skills, with an emphasis on understanding the patient’s experience. The scuttlebutt is that PD 1 is the ‘soft’ stuff, with its focus on how it feels to be a patient, ill and vulnerable, and its emphasis on self-reflection. They believe that PD 2 is the ‘real’ stuff, the opportunity to start examining patients and taking histories about real disease. They do not understand the importance of what they learned last year, because they do not know how powerful they will become, how patients will hang on their words, how devastating a careless word can be. They do not know how they can ‘do everything right’ and still be ineffective because their behavior has alienated a patient who therefore never returns or does not take necessary medication. How do I convey all this to them while they are still on the other side — where they understand the patient’s perspective more than the doctor’s? Now they are appalled if they see a physician behave rudely or insensitively to a patient. Later, they may behave so themselves. Numerous authors have noted the discrepancy between the values we purport to teach in the ‘explicit curriculum’ and what the students observe and mimic in the ‘implicit curric
A walk in the park
By Anonymous - Apr 24, 2011
An inspiring story which shows us that it is we who decide the limits of our will by defining the limits of our faith. Interestingly, the name ‘Theo‘ derives from Latin roots and means God. Truly God resides within us and reveals Himself in our most mundane existence as Will and Faith.