fandomhigh | History of Medicine - Second Period

The Danger shop was once more doing it's duty in... looking exactly like a normal classroom. One day, someone was going to ask him about this. For today, however, Nick was smiling and leaning against his desk as the class walked in.

"Welcome in," he said cheerfully, "and let's get started."

Nick pushed himself away from his desk and walked to the chalk board.

"Medicine got its start very early, as early as most important parts of life: in the prehistoric era. Now, as you might have guessed from the name of the class, there was a certain amount of mysticism involved in early medicine. Of course, people weren't stupid. If you fell and scrapped your knee, they didn't blame anyone but you. Even something like a cold was probably diagnosed by simple observation. We even have proof that prehistoric societies used plants and funguses to treat things like internal parasites. Geophagy is thought to have been practiced as well which, if you didn't know, is a rather widespread practice in the animal kingdom that involves eating dirt or clays for the minerals in them. You might also be surprised to learn that some prehistoric societies even practiced a form of brain surgery, specifically to relieve pressure on the brain and, possibly, to 'release evil spirits'. That's the thing, though: the more complex medical issues, illnesses with no visible connection to anything, were of course blamed on mystical forces.

"Sometimes these were from the outside, natural spirits, and others were thought to have come from sorcerers and the like. That's why the one who usually took care of a group or tribe or village was the shaman.

"Now," and he held up a finger, "I want to be clear that this it the generally accepted term for the role anthropologically, but the only shaman, or šamán you'd ever find would be from the cultures of ancient Siberia. Most cultures had their own name for this sort of thing, but we use this umbrella term to make it easier to discuss."

Mini-lecture over, Nick continued.

"Most of us have some idea of what a shaman was. He was a spiritual adviser, as well as a healer, and usually the person who helped mediate things within the group. Much of their wisdom in healing was taken from trial and error, but other things were supposedly learned through spiritual methods, 'spirit walks' and other metaphysical explorations."

His eyes darkened a little as he thought of a certain woman from his past. The full-scale flashback was only held at bay by the fact that he wanted to get to the rest of the class.

"Now, I'd like to do a discussion for the rest of class. I've assigned Claire and Savannah as my teaching assistants, so if you need anything in this or other classes, catch their eye if you can't catch mine."

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"And a doctor can't do both?" he asked with a raise of an eyebrow.

"Don't mistake pop psychology that insists it's based on ancient traditions with the real thing. Shamanism wasn't about making someone 'feel calm' so much as it sought to cure the whole of the disease. As we'll learn in the coming weeks, there have been various ideas on what disease even is, some of which medical science is starting to realize might have some value."

He leaned back against the desk.

"Aside from even that, shamans prescribed herbs and fungi, as I said, as well as performed procedures. For what they had, that was... reasonably high tech, don't you think? Perhaps one day people will look at what we do with the same kind of disdain."

"Maybe a doctor can but I don't think every patient's going to feel comfortable with that split focus," he decided. "Maybe some will but, personally, I'd be a little pissed if my doctor tried that on me. I could be in the minority though."

Still, that didn't mean he couldn't see the point. He just couldn't really agree with it. "It probably was high tech but if you're trying to apply that sort of thing to today, I don't think there's going to be a big receptive audience. Most people are going to want instant results to feel better and it doesn't sound like a shaman can provide it all the time. If they've got a cold, they'll want prescription drugs, not fungus."

"You mean like penicillin ? It's derived from a fungus, you know. And it's one of the most commonly prescribed antibiotics; has been for many years."

He folded his arms across his chest, not so much annoyed as intrigued.

"As for a split focus, I think you're taking things a bit far. Modern medicine has something called a 'bedside manner': how the doctor handles the patient. Couldn't this be an example of healing both the spirit and the body? Providing hope and courage to a patient in their time of sickness? There's been any number of studies that show the importance of support and commitment in medical treatment. You don't think this kind of care has any value?"

"I didn't say that." He just had no bedside manner himself. As evidenced here. Honesty tended to be his thing. "Honestly, I've never been a fan of so called bedside manner. I don't want things sugar coated and presented on a silver platter. If I'm going to die, I'd rather know than be told there's hope, you know? I think bedside manner might have some use but when it's used to disguise the truth, I have to draw a line."

He'd seen it in action, hated it, and couldn't do anything about it.

"As for the penicillin, how many people are going to really know that?" he asked, smiling a little. "Sure, you do but the average person isn't going to really put fungus and penicillin together."

He smiled right back, amused.

"Actually, a few might. Other strains of penicillin fungi are used to make things like cheese. If you've ever had a good brie, camembert, gruyere... all rely on the same sort of organism. So 'average' people might be more familiar with it than you'd think."

He breathed out.

"As for disguising the truth, that is not anything I believe in either. False hope... is a terrible thing. To witness and experience. But when someone is on that line, when they could pull through, sometimes the only thing that will keep them from death is hope.

"I was a field surgeon," and his eyes said that he was somewhere else, somewhere dark, a dank little outpost in a maelstrom of heat and light and death.

"A field surgeon... in a terrible war. I saw things unlike anything I'd ever imagined could happen to the human body. The men under my care were broken, pulverized in some cases. We all worked tirelessly but we still lost some of our charges. I made sure to keep them as calm as I could, give them as much hope for a life beyond the battlefield as I could, if I thought it would be possible. I was told more than once that my words helped as much as the stitches and the bandages. It's not something you forget."

"As long as there's some truth in there, I could deal with it," he shared, nodding. It sounded like he'd done it right. "If someone tells me that it's pretty much hopeless but offers comfort or whatever, then I can deal with it. I've seen it happen before, though, where false promises are made and everyone knows they're false but what can you do, you know?"

Alex crossed his arms slowly, more a gesture of thought than of defensiveness or irritation. "Sort of a don't tell me fluffy things to make me feel better without getting to the actual truth of the matter. If I'm gonna lose a leg, tell me and work the bedside manner around that."

"And in a group situation, comforting lies can be harmful to others. If you can't trust your doctor, then you probably don't trust his work. If you don't think you're getting better, that can do more damage than anything."

He glanced down at his desk, at a book he'd piled there with a few others. It was on civil war photography. It had been written by an old friend.

Then he breathed out.

"We don't have enough records to know what these shamans might have done or said with their patients exactly, if there was a code of ethics. But my own experience in dealing with practitioners would say that those who are good at their craft, good and trusted healers, consider honesty as important as you do. So it's something to think on."

"I can do that." He had a crapload of things to think about already. Wouldn't hurt to add something else.

That got a grin.

"Well, if you're interested in learning more, my office hours are today. So feel free to come by."

History of Medicine - Second Period - Wednesday, 1/13

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