At last a humanistic medicine?

Background: We have entered a time of enormous and rapid technological adva nce. We must pause and reflect on the role of humanism in medicine on that part of our professional calling that denotes the responsibility we have fo r caring, and the relationship between our art and our science. Objective: Humanism is defined as a mode of thought or action in which human interests , values and dignity are taken to be of primary importance. But Heidegger t hinks that humanism esteems man too low. The purpose of this article is to review the sense of the word "humanism" in medicine. Method: Theories of fo ur general sorts are identified and explained here. Results: Man is immeasu rable more than a rational animal as humanistic medicine postulates. We mus t pass beyond the traditional interpretations of the nature of man, therefo re beyond humanism and humanistic medicines. Conclusions: It is better to d ro the word completely, with the danger of being taken for anti-humanistic, rathe than run the risk of having a subject ist interpretation. We must th ink the nature of man in terms of its exclusive relationship to his being a nd to Being.