The wounded healer.
This paper deals with the emergence, elaboration, and use of the concept of "the wounded healer." The term refers to a person whose personal experience of illness and/or trauma has left lingering effects on him--in the form of lessons learned that later served him in ministering to other sufferers, or in the form of symptoms or characteristics that usefully influenced his therapeutic endeavors. While such persons and their actions have been noted across the ages, in other cultures, and in many contexts, it was not until the early twentieth century that the patterns in the behaviors of such persons were recognized, named, explained, and categorized as "healing." Early in the century, the concept was commonly used in the fields of pastoral counseling and analytical psychology; by the end of the century it had been vastly expanded and extended and no longer referred mainly to a healer of psychological suffering. The term wounded healer is now in common use in areas such as rehabilitation medicine, medical-career choice, Alcoholics Anonymous and the self-help movement, and chronic-illness support groups, as well as in the original areas of psychotherapy and pastoral care.
Jackson
S W
SW
Section of the History of Medicine, Yale University Medical School, New Haven, CT 06510, USA.
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004645:Empathy; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D049692:History, Early Modern 1451-1600; D009229:Mythology; D010327:Pastoral Care / Q000266:history*; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000266:history*; D012657:Self-Help Groups / Q000266:history*; D019423:Shamanism