Recently, I was listening to a Canadian psychiatrist being interviewed on National TV. As he was obviously very proud of having contributed to what is consider the medical bible, the commentator asked him: “But doctor, more diagnosis also implies more medications,” and the doctor simply answered with detachment: “Sure…”.
Adding more diagnostics not only justifies more medication, but also more medical procedures and absenteeism from work. “healthcare system “ are the third leading cause of death in the U.S. after heart disease and cancer, associated with the side effects of treatment.
In one blog, “Diagnosing Disease is an Illusion?!” Dr Paul Drouin wrotes: “Diagnosis creates a smoke screen that keeps the attention of the healer facing in the wrong direction to solve the problem. The core of the solution doesn’t reside in knowing the diagnosis of the disease. The consequence of investing in this mirage is to settle for an arsenal of therapies that are loaded with side effects and most often don’t address the real cause of the problem. When the strategy of healing is bound by these constraints, there is no choice other than to minimize the symptoms or accept the fatality of an ill condition.
Moreover, the diagnostic approach is embedded in a materialistic model of healing that cannot grasp the subtlety of spontaneous healing”. According to Dr Drouin, the diagnosis of disease directs the physician's attention in a way that's counterproductive to the resolution of the health condition. According to him, the heart of the solution to a chronic degenerative condition doesn't lie in the diagnosis of the disease. It lies in an understanding of every aspect of a patient's life (including the physical, mental and emotional), all of which must be considered when treating the patient. There are consequences to investigating through the "mirage" of diagnosis, which results in an arsenal of treatments that don't always treat the real cause of the problem and are often loaded with side effects.
The point raised by Dr. Drouin is that when the healing strategy is confined by the rigid framework of a diagnosis, the doctor often has no choice but to reduce the symptoms, or to accept that the patient's illness is terminal. The diagnostic approach is part of a "materialistic" healing model that declares the body to be physical and only curable by a physical process (medicine, surgery, etc.). This materialistic model cannot accommodate the subtle possibility of "spontaneous healing".
The materialistic model is often used in the belief that the client's condition is determined by genetics. In some cases, this leads to tragic situations in which the best way to prevent disease from setting in on an organ is to remove the organ itself. In the case of breast cancer, for example, where a pre-existing genetic disorder signals a high probability of the occurrence of the disease, the logic of the "materialistic" system leads to the conclusion that the removal of the breast is the most rational treatment. Such a radical treatment forces us to admit that this materialistic basis for medicine is not always well-adapted to our increasingly complex health problems.
Do you realize that as a society we have invested all our resources in a linear medical understanding that can only result in a doomed healthcare system?
The Tyranny of Diagnosis: Specific Entities and Individual Experience: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2690110/