ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that ethical self-care is needed for good medical practice to take place. The limitations to this self-care include medical and societal cultural demands and restraints and the personal fear of the healthcare professional of potentially causing harm. The notions of self-care and colleague care could be linked. Ballatt and Campling talk about reforming the culture of healthcare through kindness or kinship. Bibliotherapy can offer insight and emotional context. The House of God is one of several novels that highlight the dehumanising effect of healthcare and offers the reader the insight that they are not alone and not failing by comparison with their peers. Sir Theodore Fox, editor of the Lancet, supported the identification of general practice with a form of ethical self-cultivation. Fox's interpretation of continuing formative development of the primary care physician as fundamental encapsulates the idea of professional freedom in a balanced environment.
