“Disability is not inability”
By Stephen Tut Puol
Nov 30, 2014(Nyamilepedia) — Mind and body: The medicine focuses on the inter-actions between the brain, mind, body, and behavior and on the powerful ways in which emotional, mental, social, spiritual and behavioral factors can directly affect somebody health. Therefore, it is regards as fundamental an approach that respects and enhances each person’s capacity for self-knowledge, self-care and it emphasizes techniques that are grounded in this approach.
Background
The concept that the mind is important in the treatment of illness is integral to the healing approaches of traditional medicine, dating back more than 2,000 years. It was also noted by Hippocrates, who recognized the moral and spiritual aspects of healing and believed that treatment could occur only with consideration of attitude, environmental influences and natural remedies. While this integrated approach was maintained in traditional healing systems in the East, developments in the Western World by the 16th and 17th centuries led to a separation of human spiritual or emotional dimensions from the physical body. This separation began with the redirection of science, during the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras, to the purpose of enhancing humankind’s control over nature. Technological advances (e.g., microscopy, the stethoscope, the blood pressure cuff, and refined surgical techniques) demonstrated a cellular world that seemed far apart from the world of belief and emotion. The discovery of bacteria and, later, antibiotics further dispelled the notion of belief influencing health. Fixing or curing an illness became a matter of science (i.e., technology) and took precedence over, not a place besides, healing of the soul. As medicine separated the mind and the body, scientists of the mind (neurologists) formulated concepts, such as the unconscious, emotional impulses and cognitive delusions, that solidified the perception that diseases of the mind were not “real,” that is, not based in physiology and biochemistry.(…) More →
