01/05/2024
DIGNITY IN MENTAL HEALTH
Sometime back, the world renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked the question about her work,
“What was the first sign of civilization for me?
Was it the axe-head?
Or was it the arrowhead or was it a fish hook?
Or maybe it was something more sophisticated
like a musical instrument, or a colored ceramic bowl?
Her reply was astounding. She said, “The first sign of civilization for me
was the discovery of a broken leg bone,
the healed femur bone of a human being.”
The inquirer was somewhat confused. Dr. Margaret Meade went on to explain
that for her the true sign of civilization
was that broken bone that had healed
because the law of the land that reigned supreme
was “the survival of the fittest.”
And a broken femur, leg bone,
was the sure sign of death
because that person was unable to hunt; unable to walk.
For a bone to be healed,
Margaret Meade maintained
another human being had to care
for that person until the bone healed.
Somebody else would have had to hunt;
somebody else would have had to gather;
somebody else would have had to protect.
Someone else had to care for the person
while the femur healed.
In other words, for Margaret Meade,
compassion was the first sign of civilization...”
And I agree with her. Compassion is what holds us together. It enables us to envision the world outside of our reptilian instinct of aggression and territoriality. It tells us that together we can be something more than just ourselves. That is at the heart of medicine. We are here because we know that the only way forward is together.
When we talk about an illness and how to manage it, some of the things that come to mind are hospitalization, medication, skill building and talk therapy. However, this is incomplete. We must keep in mind that compassion is the essence of healthcare, and that all our endeavors to help the patient are futile if respect and dignity are missing from the picture
