Much of patients’ language is poetic. Schooled in scientific language, physicians may mistakenly view their patients’ language as imprecise and unsophisticated and trivialize spiritual issues. To justify studying spirituality, researchers may use quasi-scientific language that fails to express spiritual truths. Finally, we may argue with the poet. In my opening scenario, uncovering the spiritual content of the chest pain was not possible until I accepted that a broken heart could be caused by estrangement from God.
Beyond the barriers
How can we overcome language barriers, our attitudes toward suffering and death, and scientific tunnel vision? First, we should remember that simply sitting and listening has value. The act of listening fosters human connectedness and healing, so our primary response to physician-patient language barriers should be to listen. Also, we should remove labels that hinder spiritual communication. In considering spiritual issues, we are not physician, scientist, patient, and subject. We are all spiritual beings; this frees us to take the bold step of relating as equal partners in a spiritual realm.
Overcoming biases toward suffering and death requires a personal solution. We must challenge ourselves to find meaning in our own struggles. Perhaps this will allow us to affirm that growth is possible in our patients’ suffering. To enhance the quality of our dying patients’ lives, we must come to terms with the inevitability of our patients’ deaths—and our own deaths.
To avoid tunnel vision, we must ask questions. What is the purpose of spirituality? Is it a tool for prolonging life and enhancing health, or is it something broader, such as a source of life purpose? What are the nonquantifiable health benefits of spirituality? How does it enhance patients’ ability to cope with and grow from suffering?
These fundamental questions are for us all to ponder—clinician, teacher, researcher, and patient. As we simultaneously ask questions about the purpose and health benefits of spirituality, we should be reminded that at their core, medicine and religion are closely linked. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the image of a heart—a biological pump; a symbol of love; a symbol of life’s power; for many, a symbol of life’s creator. As scientists and spiritual beings we should affirm the importance of all broken hearts whatever their source—because the heart is life.