PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Egnew, Thomas R.
TI  - The Meaning Of Healing: Transcending Suffering
AID  - 10.1370/afm.313
DP  - 2005 May 01
TA  - The Annals of Family Medicine
PG  - 255--262
VI  - 3
IP  - 3
4099  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/3/3/255.short
4100  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/3/3/255.full
SO  - Ann Fam Med2005 May 01; 3
AB  - 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.