The very earliest myths relating to the art of healing give great weight to the vital importance of human dialogue.
Today's technology, however, supplies the physician with so many diagnostic and therapeutic tools that the one-on-one encounter with the patient is steadily losing its significance. And yet, even today the dialogue is still one of the most important components of the healing process.
The dialogue between physician and patient has three generally acknowledged objectives: gaining information about the illness, getting a clear understanding of the patient as a person, and the therapeutic effect. Taking the patient's history largely serves the first objective. At this stage, the physician--depending on his orientation--already chooses from a wide spectrum of approaches: from conducting a cursory, purpose-oriented interview to engaging in an open compassionate dialogue. The last approach, anchored in a spirit attuned to the patient's psyche and mind-set, will not only yield important clues as to the systemic interrelationships underlying the disease, but it also provides the foundation for the therapeutic dimension of the dialogue.
By engaging in a dialogue and by his very readiness to do so, the physician unconsciously reveals a lot about his own person.
In order to achieve a true dialogue, it is necessary that he abandon the role-playing so common to physician-patient relationships and that he meet his patient on a person-to-person basis.
