[The helplessness of medicine. 2. A challenge for general medicine]

In a first article the helplessness of modern medicine was presented and analyzed. This article discusses the role of general practice in preventing this helplessness as a medical and scientific discipline. The key to prevention is to analyze 1) which medical needs are relevant for the patients, and 2) what are the options of fulfilling these needs within the medical reality of today. General practice is a medical area where real life knowledge is estimated and available. General practitioners have experienced the inadequacy of the medical model where objectivity is superior, and therefore are developing new medical theories better suited for medical everyday problem solving. Medicine may be helped away from its present helplessness by general practice knowledge, provided that such knowledge is refined and developed and made scientifically reliable. Subjective knowledge may be transformed into science within new medical paradigms and by means of methodological tools borrowed from neighbouring human sciences. If medicine acknowledges its own helplessness, it may be treated by general practice contributions to a medical and scientific reorientation.