Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Online First
    • Multimedia
    • Collections
    • Past Issues
    • Articles by Subject
    • Articles by Type
    • Supplements
    • The Issue in Brief (Plain Language Summaries)
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Reviewers
    • Media
    • Job Seekers
  • About
    • Annals of Family Medicine
    • Editorial Staff & Boards
    • Sponsoring Organizations
    • Copyrights & Permissions
    • Announcements
  • Engage
    • Engage
    • e-Letters (Comments)
    • Subscribe
    • RSS
    • Email Alerts
    • Journal Club
  • Contact
    • Feedback
    • Contact Us
  • Careers

User menu

  • My alerts

Search

  • Advanced search
Annals of Family Medicine
  • My alerts
Annals of Family Medicine

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Online First
    • Multimedia
    • Collections
    • Past Issues
    • Articles by Subject
    • Articles by Type
    • Supplements
    • The Issue in Brief (Plain Language Summaries)
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Reviewers
    • Media
    • Job Seekers
  • About
    • Annals of Family Medicine
    • Editorial Staff & Boards
    • Sponsoring Organizations
    • Copyrights & Permissions
    • Announcements
  • Engage
    • Engage
    • e-Letters (Comments)
    • Subscribe
    • RSS
    • Email Alerts
    • Journal Club
  • Contact
    • Feedback
    • Contact Us
  • Careers
  • Follow annalsfm on Twitter
  • Visit annalsfm on Facebook
Research ArticleOriginal Research

The Meaning Of Healing: Transcending Suffering

Thomas R. Egnew
The Annals of Family Medicine May 2005, 3 (3) 255-262; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.313
Thomas R. Egnew
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

PURPOSE Medicine is traditionally considered a healing profession, but it has neither an operational definition of healing nor an explanation of its mechanisms beyond the physiological processes related to curing. The objective of this study was to determine a definition of healing that operationalizes its mechanisms and thereby identifies those repeatable actions that reliably assist physicians to promote holistic healing.

METHODS This study was a qualitative inquiry consisting of in-depth, open-ended, semistructured interviews with Drs. Eric J. Cassell, Carl A. Hammerschlag, Thomas S. Inui, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Cicely Saunders, Bernard S. Siegel, and G. Gayle Stephens. Their perceptions regarding the definition and mechanisms of healing were subjected to grounded theory content analysis.

RESULTS Healing was associated with themes of wholeness, narrative, and spirituality. Healing is an intensely personal, subjective experience involving a reconciliation of the meaning an individual ascribes to distressing events with his or her perception of wholeness as a person.

CONCLUSIONS Healing may be operationally defined as the personal experience of the transcendence of suffering. Physicians can enhance their abilities as healers by recognizing, diagnosing, minimizing, and relieving suffering, as well as helping patients transcend suffering.

  • Healing
  • physician-patient relations
  • philosophy, medical
  • Received for publication August 5, 2004.
  • Revision received November 23, 2004.
  • Accepted for publication December 23, 2004.
  • © 2005 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.
View Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

The Annals of Family Medicine: 3 (3)
The Annals of Family Medicine
Vol. 3, Issue 3
1 May 2005
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
  • In Brief
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Annals of Family Medicine.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
The Meaning Of Healing: Transcending Suffering
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Annals of Family Medicine
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Annals of Family Medicine web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
5 + 4 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.
Citation Tools
The Meaning Of Healing: Transcending Suffering
Thomas R. Egnew
The Annals of Family Medicine May 2005, 3 (3) 255-262; DOI: 10.1370/afm.313

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Get Permissions
Share
The Meaning Of Healing: Transcending Suffering
Thomas R. Egnew
The Annals of Family Medicine May 2005, 3 (3) 255-262; DOI: 10.1370/afm.313
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • INTRODUCTION
    • METHODS
    • RESULTS
    • DISCUSSION
    • Acknowledgments
    • Footnotes
    • REFERENCES
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • At the intersection of self and not-self: finding the locus of 'self in autoimmunity
  • A Narrative Approach to Healing Chronic Illness
  • Healing journey: a qualitative analysis of the healing experiences of Americans suffering from trauma and illness
  • The nature and importance of quality of therapeutic relationships in the delivery of palliative care to people with intellectual disabilities
  • Achieving Value in Primary Care: The Primary Care Value Model
  • The importance of placebo effects in enhancing palliative care interventions
  • Systems and Complexity Thinking in the General Practice Literature: An Integrative, Historical Narrative Review
  • Illness narratives: reliability, authenticity and the empathic witness
  • In This Issue: Personalizing Health Care
  • Annals Journal Club: A Patient-Physician Journey
  • Hope and Noncurative Chemotherapies: Which Affects the Other?
  • Primary Care Practice Development: A Relationship-Centered Approach
  • Receptor Sites for the Primary Care Function: Reaction to the Paper by Karen Davis, PhD, and Kristof Stremikis, MPP
  • Power to Advocate for Health
  • Ways of Knowing, Learning, and Developing
  • A Science of Connectedness
  • In This Issue: Practice, Research, and Reflection
  • Suffering, Meaning, and Healing: Challenges of Contemporary Medicine
  • The Problem of Fragmentation and the Need for Integrative Solutions
  • Understanding Healing Relationships in Primary Care
  • Healing in Primary Care: A Vision Shared by Patients, Physicians, Nurses, and Clinical Staff
  • The Development of an Instrument for Measuring Healing
  • Radical Ideas
  • In This Issue: Bursting the Bubble on Chronic Disease Management, the Meaning of Healing, PBRN Methods Supplement, and the Annals' 2-Year Anniversary
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Acute Care Use for Pediatric Asthma
  • Diagnostic Accuracy of the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status for the Detection of Dementia in Primary Care
  • Clinic Factors Associated With Mailed Fecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) Completion: The Difference-Making Role of Support Staff
Show more ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Similar Articles

Subjects

  • Methods:
    • Qualitative methods
  • Other research types:
    • Professional practice
  • Core values of primary care:
    • Coordination / integration of care
    • Personalized care
    • Relationship
  • Other topics:
    • Complementary / alternative medicine
    • Spirituality

Content

  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Past Issues in Brief
  • Multimedia
  • Articles by Type
  • Articles by Subject
  • Multimedia
  • Supplements
  • Online First

Info for

  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • Media
  • Job Seekers

Engage

  • E-mail Alerts
  • e-Letters (Comments)
  • RSS
  • Journal Club
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Subscribe
  • Family Medicine Careers

About

  • About Us
  • Editorial Board & Staff
  • Sponsoring Organizations
  • Copyrights & Permissions
  • Contact Us
  • eLetter/Comments Policy

© 2022 Annals of Family Medicine