The Patient’s Point of View — Psychological Concerns

Abstract

The diagnosis of ischaemia, perhaps a further complication of a chronic debilitating illness, results in a further fall in self-esteem, loss of uniqueness and purpose, together with an increased sense of vulnerability and death. For these people, life seems more fragile and impermanent than it did before. “Why me?” voices concern for being punished for past misconduct, or that further harm will follow.

This is the great error of our day in the treatment of the human body, that physicians separate the soul from the body.

Plato