Models and methods

Abstract

When someone asks the doctor how he solves a problem or how he makes a decision, he usually gets some general answer which really says nothing about the actual process, or the doctor will, clearly amazed, ask, ‘What do you mean?’ The problem of the intellectual strategy, the way of reasoning, is not at the forefront of awareness in the medical world. Most physicians are completely indifferent to — even contemptuous of — clinical methodology. The general statement embraces the fact that every physician has his own pathways to diagnosis and treatment, and every investigation into this field must fail as a consequence of personal differences and the uniqueness of the patient-physician relationship. Most doctors are in fact unconscious of acting out a method. They rely on intuition and ‘flair clinique’ which is indeed a personally oriented approach unsuited for exploration.

We impose our conceptions, our ideas and thoughts upon reality which creates prejudice. Prejudice precedes our view, our observation, and will determine what we shall see.

B. Pascal