University of Michigan Medical and Nursing School - Aequanimitas Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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MEDICINE - A PRIVILEGE? Pursuing medical science and art can be a con- fining occupation. The Renaissance man might well have cringed at the task of becoming a doctor todayg for as each fundamental medical science is added to the student's repertory, the walls rise higher and the light grows dim. Political and philosophical discussion, theological inquiry, art, music-all be- come things foreign, if not inferior, to Hour way of life. Doctors, because of their special knowledge, often consider themselves as men apart-and per- haps, sadly enough, this is true. We, too often, are apart from those important discussions that precede and influence legislative action. We often are painfully unaware of historical precedent for our pressing social and economic problems and thus, poorly equipped to discuss and solve them wisely. We tend to limit our associations to those of our profession, Our leisure talk seldom strays beyond the perimeter of our narrow medical interests-and when it does, we are distinctly ill at ease, if not completely bored. X To say this is the price we gladly pay forthe privilege of becoming doctors is to evade the point entirely. The privilege of being a doctor derives not simply from artfully wielding the heal- ing hand. lt is more than this. Medicine, by its very nature, intimately touches every aspect of man's existence. Concern, therefore, with man's bodily function cannot be isolated from concern for his total nature. The f'privilege, thus, rightly accrues not to those who pay the price of dis- regard, but to those who assume the added burden of being a knowledgeable, active member of society. Thomas V. Abowd '63

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June 8, 1963, marks the end of our four years discipline-a formal, external education for all and an informal, internal education for most. The external education includes all the knowledge that is necessary to practice the art of medicine. The examinations required of us along the way at least satisfied our mentors that we have grasped the basic tools we will need in our 1ife's work. I turn your attention, now, to the inner education of the physician: it is perhaps more necessary than the former because of the intimate, personal nature of his work. It is that higher education of which Christ spoke and practiced, It is that education of self-l-mowledge-the most painful and difficult knowl- edge to acquire. This education is open to all, but all do not attain it, and no examination assures its presence. Each of us, recalling our actions in these past four years, will be able to find more than one instance where the perimeters of our minds have been broadened and the opening of the mind's door widened. How well we have learned the lesson: ffHe that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall, and The first shall be the last and the last shall be the first. Truly, this has helped to develop the internal discipline-the open mind-to which this book is dedicated. The true open mind is the mind that listens to the ideas, beliefs and conclusions of others with enthusiasm, a.nd states its own thoughts with sincerity, the mind that criticizes as well as compli- L ,rp 1. - L --5,-fx - 1 -R ' W -ff, if nn. .