Clinical Holistic Medicine: Factors Influencing The Therapeutic Decision-Making. From Academic Knowledge to Emotional Intelligence and Spiritual “Crazy” Wisdom

Scientific holistic medicine is built on holistic medical theory, on therapeutic and ethical principles. The rationale is that the therapist can take the patient into a state of salutogenesis, or existential healing, using his skills and knowledge. But how ever much we want to make therapy a science...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Søren Ventegodt, Isack Kandel, Joav Merrick
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2007-01-01
Series:The Scientific World Journal
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/tsw.2007.303
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832565821253091328
author Søren Ventegodt
Isack Kandel
Joav Merrick
author_facet Søren Ventegodt
Isack Kandel
Joav Merrick
author_sort Søren Ventegodt
collection DOAJ
description Scientific holistic medicine is built on holistic medical theory, on therapeutic and ethical principles. The rationale is that the therapist can take the patient into a state of salutogenesis, or existential healing, using his skills and knowledge. But how ever much we want to make therapy a science it remains partly an art, and the more developed the therapist becomes, the more of his/her decisions will be based on intuition, feeling and even inspiration that is more based on love and human concern and other spiritual motivations than on mental reason and rationality in a simple sense of the word. The provocative and paradoxal medieval western concept of the “truth telling clown”, or the eastern concepts of “crazy wisdom” and “holy madness” seems highly relevant here. The problem is how we can ethically justify this kind of highly “irrational” therapeutic behavior in the rational setting of a medical institution. We argue here that holistic therapy has a very high success rate and is doing no harm to the patient, and encourage therapists, psychiatrists, psychologist and other academically trained “helpers” to constantly measure their own success-rate. This paper discusses many of the important factors that influence clinical holistic decision-making. Sexuality could, as many psychoanalysts from Freud to Reich and Searles have believed, be the most healing power that exists and also the most difficult for the mind to comprehend, and thus the most “crazy-wise” tool of therapy.
format Article
id doaj-art-de6a12e81609491fb049a83a0ee17593
institution Kabale University
issn 1537-744X
language English
publishDate 2007-01-01
publisher Wiley
record_format Article
series The Scientific World Journal
spelling doaj-art-de6a12e81609491fb049a83a0ee175932025-02-03T01:06:35ZengWileyThe Scientific World Journal1537-744X2007-01-0171932194910.1100/tsw.2007.303Clinical Holistic Medicine: Factors Influencing The Therapeutic Decision-Making. From Academic Knowledge to Emotional Intelligence and Spiritual “Crazy” WisdomSøren Ventegodt0Isack Kandel1Joav Merrick2Quality of Life Research Center, Classensgade 11C, 1 sal, DK-2100 Copenhagen O, DenmarkFaculty of Social Sciences, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ariel University Center of Samaria, Ariel, IsraelNational Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Jerusalem, IsraelScientific holistic medicine is built on holistic medical theory, on therapeutic and ethical principles. The rationale is that the therapist can take the patient into a state of salutogenesis, or existential healing, using his skills and knowledge. But how ever much we want to make therapy a science it remains partly an art, and the more developed the therapist becomes, the more of his/her decisions will be based on intuition, feeling and even inspiration that is more based on love and human concern and other spiritual motivations than on mental reason and rationality in a simple sense of the word. The provocative and paradoxal medieval western concept of the “truth telling clown”, or the eastern concepts of “crazy wisdom” and “holy madness” seems highly relevant here. The problem is how we can ethically justify this kind of highly “irrational” therapeutic behavior in the rational setting of a medical institution. We argue here that holistic therapy has a very high success rate and is doing no harm to the patient, and encourage therapists, psychiatrists, psychologist and other academically trained “helpers” to constantly measure their own success-rate. This paper discusses many of the important factors that influence clinical holistic decision-making. Sexuality could, as many psychoanalysts from Freud to Reich and Searles have believed, be the most healing power that exists and also the most difficult for the mind to comprehend, and thus the most “crazy-wise” tool of therapy.http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/tsw.2007.303
spellingShingle Søren Ventegodt
Isack Kandel
Joav Merrick
Clinical Holistic Medicine: Factors Influencing The Therapeutic Decision-Making. From Academic Knowledge to Emotional Intelligence and Spiritual “Crazy” Wisdom
The Scientific World Journal
title Clinical Holistic Medicine: Factors Influencing The Therapeutic Decision-Making. From Academic Knowledge to Emotional Intelligence and Spiritual “Crazy” Wisdom
title_full Clinical Holistic Medicine: Factors Influencing The Therapeutic Decision-Making. From Academic Knowledge to Emotional Intelligence and Spiritual “Crazy” Wisdom
title_fullStr Clinical Holistic Medicine: Factors Influencing The Therapeutic Decision-Making. From Academic Knowledge to Emotional Intelligence and Spiritual “Crazy” Wisdom
title_full_unstemmed Clinical Holistic Medicine: Factors Influencing The Therapeutic Decision-Making. From Academic Knowledge to Emotional Intelligence and Spiritual “Crazy” Wisdom
title_short Clinical Holistic Medicine: Factors Influencing The Therapeutic Decision-Making. From Academic Knowledge to Emotional Intelligence and Spiritual “Crazy” Wisdom
title_sort clinical holistic medicine factors influencing the therapeutic decision making from academic knowledge to emotional intelligence and spiritual crazy wisdom
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/tsw.2007.303
work_keys_str_mv AT sørenventegodt clinicalholisticmedicinefactorsinfluencingthetherapeuticdecisionmakingfromacademicknowledgetoemotionalintelligenceandspiritualcrazywisdom
AT isackkandel clinicalholisticmedicinefactorsinfluencingthetherapeuticdecisionmakingfromacademicknowledgetoemotionalintelligenceandspiritualcrazywisdom
AT joavmerrick clinicalholisticmedicinefactorsinfluencingthetherapeuticdecisionmakingfromacademicknowledgetoemotionalintelligenceandspiritualcrazywisdom