title: [Medical Humanities--the Historical Significance and Mission in Medical Education].
abstract: In this paper we consider the significance and mission of medical humanities in medical education from the following six viewpoints: (1) misunderstanding of the medical humanities; (2) its historical development; (3) the criteria for the ideal physician; (4) the contents of current Medical Humanities education; (5) the basic philosophy; and (6) its relation to medical professionalism. Medical humanities consists of the three academic components of bioethics, clinical ethics and medical anthropology, and it is a philosophy and an art which penetrate to the fundamental essence of medicine. The purpose of medical humanities is to develop one's own humanity and spirituality through medical practice and contemplation by empathizing with patients' illness narratives through spiritual self-awakening and by understanding the mutual healing powers of human relations by way of the realization of primordial life. The basic philosophy is "the coincidence of contraries". The ultimate mission of medical humanities is to cultivate physicians to educate themselves and have a life-long philosophy of devotion to understanding, through experience, the coincidence of contraries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Humanities, School of Medicine, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan.
authors.forename: Akihiro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fujino
mesh_terms: D060432:Anthropology, Medical; D001675:Bioethics; D004501:Education, Medical; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006809:Humanities / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D009787:Occupational Medicine; D010686:Philosophy, Medical; D029181:Spirituality