Medical Technology and the Separation of Mans Body and Mind :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Medical Technology and the Separation of Mans Body and Mind The human was once whole in days before, but somewhere in his journey to the present, he lost himself. His mind and body have run low separate identities that are unaware of each others existence. Modern society reflects and encourages those thoughts really well, in my opinion. If a person believes his body is broken, ill, or in need of upgrading, he will seek out a medical professional narrow in the area of distress. Arriving to the specialist, the patient demands quick and efficient treatments that will cure/fix/upgrade the weakness in his body unaware of the effects this may cause him mentally. Once cured of his weakness, the patient is in full working order and is sent back out into the world. That mans procedure for curing his weakness is the like road taken as someone who wishes to fix a toaster, for example. Would it then be safe to say that the man, subconsciously or consciously, considers his body to be to a g reater extent closely related to a tool rather than a part of himself? Unfortunately, I believe this man is only one person out of an completed society that shares the same dissociation of body and mind. Why do people of modern society not associate themselves with their physical being, and where is this leading us? Moreover, how did this madness of self come about? I will try to explain the latter of the two questions first, because I believe the answer can be explained through the evolution of medical technology.Traditionally, the main goal of medicine, as in the practice of, has been to cure diseases and prevent death, a classic human vs. nature scenario. To overcome death, which is a part of all the life cycles in the natural world, is virtually impossible. However, I am not here to argue the validity of mans fight with nature. I am trying to explain that the traditional medical community has but one enemy, and its success with that enemy has been limited. However, as time pa sses, the main goals of medicine start to become questionable. Daniel Callahan addresses some of modern medicines new goals in the fifth chapter of False Hopes. Describing the second great attraction of modern medicine, he writesHere the aim is not the historic goal of avoiding disease and averting death, but of using the knowledge