An Amazing Murmur of the Heart

Many years ago I reviewed Jacob Needleman's book The Way of the Physician in which he makes the point that great doctors are first great human beings. This book shares a similar perspective articulated by Sir William Osler when he wrote that the practice of medicine is an art based on science. This book is about the differences between healing and curing where healing is about people and curing about patients. Helman identifies a new kind of physician, which he calls a techno-doctor, one more interested in digital data, machines, charts and individual body parts than live patients. Indeed, the title of the book comes from an early medical round where the consultant refers to an amazing murmur of the heart as an example of the phenomenon, and also 'a really interesting spleen' without any regard for the patient. Another important theme is psychosomatic interaction where people can suffer from pseudo-diseases brought on by an overactive imagination in some cases reinforced by a scary diagnosis. The last chapter is on the wounded healer applied to physicians themselves and how they deal with a lifetime's experience of encountering human suffering. Helman's recommendation is that doctors, like shamans, need to heal themselves but also occasionally to receive support from their patients. This is a profoundly human book that will resonate with many physicians as well as general readers.