Sublime

such operations were left to

Until the 20th century, wealthy households in China retained a well-known physician to be on constant call for the entire family, much as major corporations today retain renowned attorneys. The physician would visit the household regularly to check everyone’s health, dispense preventive advice and formulas, check on diets and personal habits, and

I was certain that it’s harder to learn how to communicate well with patients than to learn pathophysiology and pharmacology.

In a different use of the same analogy to a similar end Osler advised: “Live a simple and a temperate life, that you may give all your powers to your profession. Medicine is a jealous mistress.”

The movement and constantly changing scenery helps the patient remember my advice, and helps me remember the encounter!

Freud and Breuer’s Studies on Hysteria,

The job of any doctor, Bludau later told me, is to support quality of life, by which he meant two things: as much freedom from the ravages of disease as possible and the retention of enough function for active engagement in the world.