everything is fine

[Guest guest]

>

 

(I think you guys are protesting too much.)

 

hmmmmm.... I've seen more New ager students become good " scientific " TCMers than

" wanna be MDs " become adaquate TCMers. Of course, some never " get " TCM and some

never can overcome the intellectual challenges. I've talked to people who teach

pre-med and med students at UCLA and they are shocked and disgusted at the

students lack of imaginations and common sense. A great future there.

 

Sorry, I still believe in healing and there are those who can contribute. Our

generation accomplished alot in TCM and certainly we should move on and up in

educational standards but not at the cost of shutting out those who have no

desire to talk, walk and look like MDs. And that may include a few who are

reading this.

 

If prospective students want energy and vivid dreams, what does that say about

their pathologies? A lack of Earth, Heart and Kidney imbalances, a disconnect

from a technological society? We all know that TCM offers the West a bridge

between two worlds. With one breath you (OK, maybe not you) talk about how the

communists wrecked the medicine and with the next how it's not metaphysical.

Well it may not be spacey but it certainly is dialectical.

 

But before this devil stops his advocacy, I again and again say it's all a

matter of economics. If there were the guarantees of a high salary at the end of

4, 6 or 8 years, the major Universities would have TCM departments filled with

(only) 4.0 gradepoints.

 

;-)

doug

 

 

> sad, but not surprising. I see prospective students daily because

> they get free tx in the PCOM clinic. The average student is young and

> very very new agey. I often get requests from people to make their

> dreams MORE vivid or hear a lot of talk about ENERGY medicine. It

> doesn't hlep that our admin director is a new ager herself. I believe

> the image of our field may already be tainted beyond repair and that

> gives me concern for our future.....

 

> We need to run fast and far from new

> age medicine. TCM is NOT new age. And it serves us NO purpose to

> characterize it this way to ANYONE EVER.

[Guest guest]

This is a more complicated topic than we may think. Some of the 'new

agers' (poor label) I think may be more accurately thought of as young,

inspired dreamers who have found an inspiring profession, i.e. Chinese

medicine. If they can combine perspiration with inspiration, 'right

brain' with 'left brain', they'll do fine. The more extreme of this

group tend to filter out as the difficulty of studying herbal medicine

sinks in.

 

Other students who come to PCOM tend to come from a more scientific or

higher educational background. They are attracted to Chinese medicine

usually from being turned off to the dryness of premed education that

Douglas mentions here.

 

I find the quality of students at PCOM improving over the years,

whatever direction they come from. While some students are very

frustrating, others can carry on very intelligent dialogues on

fundamentals of Chinese medicine. It has made my position as professor

much more interesting over the last few years, and helped me to develop

my teaching skills.

 

I think, like Doug, that Chinese medicine has room for healers as well

as physicians. Some people can perform healing well with less data.

This is a multivalent profession, medicine. There are many levels at

which one can offer help to the public. I have always thought,

idealist that I am , that in our field the great physicians of

history such as Maimonides, Ibn Sina, Samuel Hahnemann, Li Dong-yuan,

etc. should be our models. Not just guys in lab coats in sterile

laboratories.

 

Again, I have no problem with the Mercy College model as long as it is

not the predominant or only model offered. I'll discuss my feelings on

integrated medicine in another posting.

 

 

 

 

On Wednesday, March 26, 2003, at 03:57 PM, douglas wrote:

 

> hmmmmm.... I've seen more New ager students become good " scientific "

> TCMers than " wanna be MDs " become adaquate TCMers. Of course, some

> never " get " TCM and some never can overcome the intellectual

> challenges. I've talked to people who teach pre-med and med students

> at UCLA and they are shocked and disgusted at the students lack of

> imaginations and common sense. A great future there.

>

> Sorry, I still believe in healing and there are those who can

> contribute. Our generation accomplished alot in TCM and certainly we

> should move on and up in educational standards but not at the cost of

> shutting out those who have no desire to talk, walk and look like MDs.

> And that may include a few who are reading this.