Philosophy as Therapy: Rebalancing Technology and Care in Health Professions Education

Caring resides in relationships. In healthcare, a patient's caring relationship is with a clinician, who attends to the distress and vulnerability that result from being ill. Technology is an increasingly important, but sometimes unduly dominant, third party in therapeutic relationships. Drugs and instruments, which are becoming ever more effective combatants against disease, can also compromise the humanity of healthcare by distancing clinicians from patients' illnesses. This chapter recruits philosophy to problematise and thereby forge anew the relationship between care and technology. Hermeneutic philosophy sheds informative light on the concept of care. More specifically, Heidegger's analysis of technology suggests new ways in which technology, care, and medical praxis can interrelate. Our analysis positions philosophy as a therapeia, which can alleviate suffering at a time when the practice of medicine is sometimes failing to fulfil its social contract. For this to be possible, health professions education must incorporate philosophy more robustly into its way of thinking. The reward for doing so may be to improve the wellbeing of clinicians as well as patients.