STUDENT CRITICISM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26530, 4 August 1947, Page 4

STUDENT CRITICISM

OTAGO MEDICAL COURSE PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY REPLY BY DR ECCLES “ Now that criticisms of my department have entered the public press, I should like to clear up some misunderstandings,” said Dr J. C. Eccles, professor of physiology at the Otago Medical School, when asked for comment on the statement made by a medical student in Saturday’s Daily Times following a report Of an address by Dr C. McC. Brooks, professor of physiology at Johns Hopkins University, on the subject of medical teaching ./ ■ “In the first place,” Dr Eccles said, “Dr Brooks was misreported in the Daily Times on Friday last as saying: ‘ I have come a long way to study with this man, and I am not going to let students call him a fool.’ He actually stated that he did not want students to think him a' fool for travelling half round the world to work in the Physiology Department. Psychology Lectures “ No doubt through courtesy to a distinguished visitor, the reporter transferred the implied foolishness to me— I am not complaining, merely explaining—but unfortunately the anonymous student critic in his statement on Saturday refuses to concur in this transfer; so the implication of foolishness must return to Dr Brooks. “In the, same article,” Dr Eccles continues, “ the anonymous student (A. S.) is reported as stating that: ‘ It is obvious that, since these three lectures (on psychology) are one of the duties of the professor of physiology . . Which goes to show that perhaps I am the fool after all, because I was quite unaware that it was one of my duties. In view of A. S.’s handsome repudiation of my alleged foolishness, it may appear churlish if I suggest that alternatively A. S. might have assumed naively that, because I of the kindness of my heart, it was gave three lectures in psychology out ‘ one of my duties.’ I hope no reader is unkind enough to suggest the addition of another ‘ S,’ for realy A. S. means very well in asking that doctors should treat their patients as human persons. One, however, does hope that Dr A. S. will be more careful than A. S. in turning assumptions into facts. Part in Medical Education “ So now we have three claimants for the title of fool,” Dr Eccles said, “ and it seems that no more than one can qualify. Wouldn't St. Francis of Assisi have enjoyed the situation? “But more seriously, I hope A. S. is not suggesting that a more humane medical profession can be created by some 30 lectures in psychology,, which in many modern guises is just as mechanistic as physiology and far more insidious in its influence. If our doctors are to grow in compassion and human understanding, then I would suggest that it is religion they need rather than psychology, though, of course, my attempt to give spontaneously ‘ a paltry three lectures on psychology’ (I hope paltry knows where it belongs) should indicate that I regard normal psychology as necessary in medical education." The initials, “A. 5.,” were appended to the original article in the student journal, “Critic.”