Monthly Archives: May 2019

Re-humanizing Medicine – bringing together the science of a good technician and the spirituality of a good healer.

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I just came across this old review of Re-humanizing Medicine by my friend, Lelia Kozak. I was thinking a lot about this book of mine from 2014 this past week as a neighbor was interviewing me for a health professions class. Over the years I have deepened in my understanding of how we need to be not just good technicians, but good, well-rounded human beings, in order to give the best care possible to our clients and patients. We cannot give to others what we have not first developed within ourselves. Our evidence-based medicine is new and scientific, but it needs to be integrated with a human-based medicine that reaches back to the ancient wisdom of healers throughout time immemorial. Thanks, again, for this review, Leila!

Leila compared me to Larry Dossey, which is quite an honour and a little embarrassing as well to have someone compare you to such an influential figure. In his 1999 book, Re-inventing Medicine: Beyond Mind-Body to a New Era of Healing, Dr. Dossey describes three eras of medicine, Era I (mechanical), Era II (mind-body), Era III (non-local/eternity medicine). He points out that “the path of the physician since antiquity has been considered a spiritual path,” (228). He saw Era III medicine as a blending of spiritual, mind-body, and mechanical approaches. The reinvention in medicine was as much remembering our spiritual roots as healers as it was adding anything new. What is new is blending science and spirituality.

“I used to believe that we must choose between science and reason on the one hand and spirituality on the other, as foundations for living our lives. Now I consider this a false choice, because in my own life I have found that science and spirituality can coexist and even flourish,” (Larry Dossey, Reinventing Medicine, 12).

I was lucky enough for Dr. Dossey to write an endorsement for Re-humanizing Medicine! I do see a continuity in our work, but this has more to say about connecting to ancient healing wisdom than to anything particular about me as a person. Here is what Dr. Dossey had to say about the book:

“Modern medicine is engaged in a struggle to find its heart, soul, and spirit. This task must begin with physicians themselves. Dr. David Kopacz’s Re-Humanizing Medicine is an excellent guide in how this urgent undertaking can unfold.” ~ Larry Dossey, MD, Author: Reinventing Medicine and Healing Words.

Memorial Day Wishes of Peace for those on all sides of the Vietnam War – Bánh Xe Y Học: Hành Trình

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On Memorial Day we remember those whom we have lost. Official reports of loss of US soldiers in the Vietnam War is 58,000+. A 2008 British Medical Journal study estimates 3.8 million total deaths during the Vietnam War (called the Resistance War Against America in Vietnam). The suffering of war continues long after the war ends with PTSD, Moral Injury, Agent Orange exposure, and even suicide. Controversy exists over the number of US Vietnam veterans who have committed suicide since returning home, with estimates from 9,000 (in a 1990 study) to over 50,000 reported in various places. As a psychiatrist who works daily with veterans, I see the long-lasting after effects of war. Brain science has been pushing back the age of full development for the human brain, with 25 years of age being considered brain maturity. Wars typically are fought by the young and after every war we have a generation of veterans whose developing brains have been shaped by war and the imprint of death. The casualties of war are the walking wounded as well as the deceased, and many of the wounds are not visible.

I just received a box of books from Vietnam, the Vietnamese translation of Walking the Medicine Wheel: Healing Trauma & PTSD (Bánh Xe Y Học: Hành Trình). It is really amazing to hold these books from Vietnam in my hands and compare them side by side. I work with so many veterans at the VA who served in Vietnam and to have the words of peace that Joseph Rael (Beautiful Painted Arrow) and I have put together into this book translated into Vietnamese feels very important.

The work of peace is a continual work, like tending a garden. To receive a box of books from Vietnam about bringing peace to veterans is like getting a big packet of seeds to replant what has been injured by war. For Joseph, language is very important, not just in conveying meaning, but in creating spiritual realities. To have the healing properties of the medicine wheel translated into Vietnamese brings our two lands and peoples closer together in peace. Translators Huỳnh ngọc trụ & Lê Thục Uyên Phương have worked to bring American English and Vietnamese into resonance with each other. In his book, House of Shattering Light, Joseph wrote about how the war gods were first created out of the fear that people had, but that later they came home to peace and became peace gods. In Walking the Medicine Wheel: Healing Trauma & PTSD, the title of chapter 14 is “Return to the Held-back Place of Goodness, which translates into Vietnamese as, “Trở Về Nơi Tốt Lành,” Return to Good Place.” Peace is this Good Place and Joseph tells us that we all have it within our hearts, we can forget about it, we can loose touch with it, but is always there. Our jobs as healers – both those working as healers for others, and those of us who are seeking to heal ourselves – is to find our way back home to this place of goodness, this place of peace. We are all wounded in one way or another, and yet we all have a source of goodness and healing within us – we are the medicine that we are seeking!