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To the Editor: Although Dr Campo¹ identifies a lack of humanism in medical education, I think he makes a common but important error. One of the great difficulties among new medical students is the lack of a broad-based education prior to medical school. Most medical students appear to have had their education in science but to have had little interest in or study of the humanities. Relatively few students major in history, literature, or the arts.

There is a gross distortion in attempting to teach "medical humanities." Our view toward our patients and, more particularly, treatment of them should be conditioned upon a deeply held belief in the very general human qualities of empathy and understanding of basic human emotions and motives. These areas are the desire to be valued, to be treated with respect as a thinking and feeling individual, and to have some degree of control over one's . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Michael A. Bogdasarian, MD
MBogdasari@aol.com
Lourdes Hospital
Binghamton, NY

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