Early on in his work "The Idea of the Holy," Rudolf Otto writes about the process of rationalization and how it provides a way in which to understand that which would otherwise be too great to grasp. For example, he writes that a song is a way of rationalizing music -- a way of taking the infinitely immense variations of cords and intervals and melodies and transforming them into something that is capable of evoking a unique response that can only be called "musical." Likewise, he continues, religion is a way of rationalizing God -- a manageable method of understanding the divine within a human framework.
As I am nearing the end of my third year of medical school, I cannot help but think that medicine, for me, is a way of rationalizing the human body. The human body itself is of such profundity that it warrants attempts at rationalization - what with its unique shape, peculiar requirements, and endless potential - and surely others have sought to do so. The simple vastness of sculpture, writings, paintings, and performances that help define the ages are a testimony to this quest of understanding who we are and what we are all about.
But surely medicine, you say, stands alone, for while medicine addresses specifically the human body, the other arts are more concerned with the human condition.
But the human body and the human condition are intimately related. The manner in which humans complete the most basic of actions...the way in which we eat and sleep, the way we jump for joy or recoil in fear, the way we reach out to someone, the way we love...in short, everything that makes us human starts and ends with the body. And therefore to study the body from a medical perspective is to attempt to gain insight into our humanity by way of rationalizing the body.
Enough -- off to study!
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