[The challenge of ecology to medicine]

The science of ecology is an important tool for reflecting upon the interaction between organisms and the environment. However, this science cannot be applied directly to human systems, since human interaction is very complex and is often based on symbolic meanings. An interdisciplinary approach to human ecology is therefore necessary. At a deeper level, ecological thinking might be integrated into a vision of the unity of reality, which includes both subjective and objective experiences, and where human values are just as important as facts. Ecological thinking challenges medicine to take a multidimensional view of man and to regard man, in common with life in general, as a self-organizing system. Value-based ecological thinking should be just as relevant in situations as diverse as our relationship to the individual patient and his community, and our own relationship to the industrial society and our common global environment.