ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that T. S. Eliot says something that may help people understand the nature of practical wisdom, both in life generally, and in the clinical practice of health care in particular. The world, Eliot implies, is more complex and subtle than a simple binary choice between attachment and detachment might suggest. Eliot is telling the people that indifference is sterile and dead, whilst both attachment and detachment have the potential for life. While all of this may seem a long way from the clinician in the consulting room or hospital ward. The chapter also suggests that several images may help the people to understand the relationship between attachment and detachment in health care. There is a need for more empirical work on this hypothesis and, more generally, on how this understanding of the relationship between attachment and detachment in clinical practice may improve the quality of clinical practice.
