Zen awareness in the teaching of palpation: An osteopathic perspective

摘要

Teaching and learning manual diagnosis and treatment create a mutual challenge to both the student and master in communicating. The perception of, and action based on, the information gained by palpation is pre-verbal. However, communication between patient and practitioner, as well as charting and billing, require the translation of this information into a recordable form by the use of cognitive constructs-ideas, words, treatment models and illustrative analogies. These intellectual tools sometime assist but sometime mislead the treating person and patient when the distinction is lost between the original experience and the interpretation. For convenience the constructs evolve into rules which then create expectations that become barriers to the appreciation of the experience of touch and the real state of tissue. In teaching and practice, with few exceptions, the conceptual models are stressed with limited recognition of variation in perception or the actualities of the perceptual process itself.