Communication and the humanities: the nature of the nexus

Humanism and the humanities open the way to communication, to a better professional and political performance, and to a better image of the profession in the eyes of its "real" public. They also offer to individual physicians a richer life, a greater understanding of their own achievements, a protection against isolation, a sense of place, and another sense of purpose. They help to augment the practical wisdom required for and generated by the one-to-one relationship that is the basis of medical practice. Of most importance, they allow a person, in the words of author John Fowles, "to learn one's particular powers, and then with them to humanize the whole: that is the best for the situation."