To Know of Suffering and the Teaching of Empathy

Medical education is geared primarily to the mastering of an enormous amount of information on the nature of the body, on diseases or injuries afflicting the body, and on techniques for elimination or at least dissipating the impact of illness. How to promote a humanistic or an empathetic grasp of the hurt and pain that often accompanies these illnesses, particularly those that cannot be eased by standard treatment, is another matter.