Judaism and medicine
I've become a big fan of Jerome Groopman, the Harvard professor of medicine who writes about health care for the New Yorker. A excerpt of his new book, How Doctors Think, that ran in the New Yorker recently offered elegantly written insight into what leads doctors to the wrong medical conclusion. Included in that piece was an introspective reflection that took the reader to Groopman's time as a fellow at UCLA, which means he must be cool.
In tomorrow's Forward, Zachary Sholem Berger has a Q & A with the good doctor that asks not how doctors think, but how Groopman does.
ZSB: What does the Jewish tradition mean to you?JG: I feel its importance very deeply. There is room in it for doubt and skepticism and questioning, not a sense of infallibility. There’s also extraordinary psychological insight with regard to motivation and character. For example, Maimonides talks about magical thinking, and the Torah talks about not believing in sorcery — often patients do have magical thinking, believing that they will be saved.
ZSB: Doctors too — magical thinking guards us against admitting our ignorance.
JG: That’s right! So we should be challenging ourselves. Judaism impels you to challenge yourself. In the greatest debates in Talmud, you are able to challenge the greatest authorities.
ZSB: Do you feel recourse to spirituality, to God?
JG: As much I wish there were miracles — boom, my hand’s fixed — those are fantasies. What Judaism teaches us is the knowledge that we’re created with reservoirs of resilience. We are created with the capacity of wisdom, which means judgment — not just knowledge, but the ability to assess and weigh that knowledge to make choices. Very integral in Judaism is the sense of hope. There is capacity to improve. What it takes is drawing on gifts of science with mobilization of the spirit.
About this blog
Brad A. Greenberg is a God-fearing Christian with devilishly good Jewish looks. He writes about the intersection of faith and life.
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