The themes of wholeness, storytelling, and spirituality are congruent with the derivation of the term “healing.” To heal means to “make whole” and comes from the root, haelan, the state or state of being of hal, whole.31 Hal is also the root of “holy,” defined as “spiritually pure.” 31 The derivation of the same medieval root indicates a centuries-old link between healing and the perception of wholeness and spirituality that challenges biomedical thinking. Medicine does not have a model of what it means to be whole as a person,32 values objective data more than subjective data,33 and takes spirituality into account negligibly.34 Although they remain faithful to the derivation of the Word, these topics do not shed light on healing operations to help clinicians better facilitate the process. The fact that the proposed definition of healing depends heavily on questions of meaning, spirituality, and the doctor-patient relationship for their operations is a cautionary tale. The lack of precise definitions of spirituality precludes systematic research in this area.71 It is conceivable that patients who do not want to talk about their spirituality, who are mentally handicapped, or who are incapable or disinterested in a coherent relationship, may not be accessible to the healing operations described here. Whether cure occurs in other forms for these patients is a plausible question for other studies, but it may be that cure, like curing diseases, may not be possible for all patients. For all these reasons, the definition of cure proposed in this study should be considered preliminary, but it is a good starting point for further discussion and study. Herbal medicines in traditional Chinese medicine are described with the following characteristics: taste or taste; the act of ascending, descending, swimming and sinking; meridian attribute; and toxicity. The herbs are combined in such a way that the administration of the primary treatment herb is supported by the associated, adjuvant and messenger herbs. Herbs are usually boiled in water or provided orally with honey. Burning herbs in combination with acupuncture can be used in a process called moxibustion to stimulate points on the meridians (3). The operational definition, which is the central plot of this study, solves part of this dilemma. Sick people undergo transformations in which they can no longer be the people they once were. This threat to wholeness produces suffering35 and includes the physical, social, psychological, and spiritual dimensions of personality described in this study.36 Suffering is an inherently unpleasant experience that reflects the perception of helplessness.37 It may involve pain, but it is a fear of a different order from pain38,39 that alienates the victim from himself and society.40 Suffering creates a “crisis of meaning, 36 a spiritual contemplation of the ultimate meaning of life,34 and it is reflected as a deeply personal narrative.41 Thus, suffering encompasses themes of wholeness, narrative and spirituality and has great implications for facilitating healing.
Step 3 was to identify all uses of the concept. The use of the OHE framework limited the context of healing to humans, so descriptions and definitions of healing in terms of political relationships, conflict, environment, etc. were examined, but were not included in the analysis. METHODS This study was a qualitative study consisting of extensive, open, semi-structured interviews with Dr. Eric J. Cassell, Carl A. Hammerschlag, Thomas S. Inui, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Cicely Saunders, Bernard S. Siegel and G.
Gayle Stephens. Their perceptions of the definition and mechanisms of healing were subjected to a well-founded theoretical content analysis. Healing occurs in the context of a relationship: “At the center of almost every healing story are one or more critical relationships. 31 Relationships that are essential to the healing process may involve friends, family, community, a higher being, or oneself.19 For some, it is even achieved through the relationship and connection with a pet.32 Anthropological research highlights the therapeutic effect of the relationship between healers and healers.33 34 Healing is an innate ability, a natural process; Therefore, the healing relationship is relieving. Native American rituals involve perspiration, which cleanses the body and soul. Sweat lodges are small, dark structures where hot rocks are covered with cold water to create steam. In this protected environment, the community or individual prays for healing. Participating in a sweat lodge ceremony is a way to purify your body, mind, and soul and be in harmony with the universe (10).
The team tested precursors, attributes, and consequences with real and compound cases to clarify, refine, and validate defining attributes. A case study is a clear example of the concept that includes all the defining characteristics. A borderline case almost illustrates the concept, but one or more of the definition attributes are missing. Contradictory cases are clearly not representative of the concept studied.4 Finally, we reviewed the literature for empirical referents. Empirical references are the measurable ways to demonstrate healing. Crystal healing provides excellent stress relief and is especially helpful for people with migraines, insomnia, panic attacks, pain, joint stiffness, indigestion, and chronic or serious illnesses such as cancer that require long-term support. It has also been shown to be helpful for infertility and behavioral disorders. Emotionally, crystal healing can stabilize moods and increase self-esteem. On a mental level, it induces clarity and improves concentration. In summary, healing has been defined as the development of a sense of personal wholeness that includes the physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual aspects of human experience.
The disease threatens the integrity of the personality, isolates the patient and creates suffering. Suffering is alleviated by removing the threat and reformulating the previous sense of personality. Suffering is transcended when it is endowed with a meaning compatible with a new sense of personal wholeness. The entirety of the personality is facilitated by personal relationships characterized by continuity. Thus understood, the central action of the responses of this cohort provides an operative definition of healing: healing is the personal experience of the transcendence of suffering. A search of the literature, both published and secular (e.g., newspaper articles, personal communications), led to the adoption of the following model case of healing: The purpose of this study was to extract the defining attributes of healing in order to provide a clear and comprehensive definition of healing, one that could be used to operationalize and measure the concept. The predominant clinical application of the concept is to mediate for full disease recovery or injury repair, such as in healing, disease management and healing. The team recognized the biomedical use of the concept and included repair and recovery as a defining attribute. This decision was the result of an important debate and a return to literature, concluding that healing involves reparation and restoration in the multiple dimensions of our humanity; Mind, body and soul. Our use of the OHE framework to guide conceptual analysis led us to focus on the literature examining healing as a holistic concept versus the dominant biomedical focus on repair and recovery. Two definitions reflected the theme of healing as a narrative.
Inui clarified that its definition resists the concept of “physicians as biomedical experts who identify vulnerability and disease and then, emphasizing vulnerability and eradication of disease, ensure health.” Siegel noted that healing is “in a sense a reinterpretation of life.” For these respondents, healing takes place in the life story of the person experiencing the phenomenon. The sub-themes of transformation, loss, isolation and suffering were related to the theme of wholeness. The disease, says Cassell, “denies most notions of what it means to be yourself.” The loss of ability, “when you can`t do the things you did before,” as Saunders observed, isolates sufferers by compromising the connections that support the perception of wholeness. “We don`t think we`re enough,” Hammerschlag noted. “It`s too insulating. It`s too separate. The nature of human experience is not solitary. Sick patients experience a transformation in their sense of wholeness, which is characterized by loss and isolation.