Daily Connect: Healing vs. Curing

Some food for thought today:

"Curing is remedial and involves fixing whatever outer problem arises, such as patching a tire if you have a flat, or treating snakebite, or using chemotherapy to control a tumor.  It does not help you avoid the nails on the road, the snakes in the woods, or the disease that caused the tumor.  Healing is broader, more global, and complete.  Healing transforms one's life, and often, though not always, produces a physical cure.  I have seen many medical cures in which healing did not occur.  I have seen instances in which there was great healing but the patient passed away..."

An interesting interpretation of "Curing" and "Healing" by Alberto Villoldo from his book Shaman, Healer, Sage.   Villoldo is a classicly trained medical anthropologist who spent more than twenty years learning healing methods from the contemporary descendents of the Inkas.

It makes me wonder whether our medical system is geared towards "curing" or "healing"?

Image by By Luna04 at fr.wikipedia [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

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