Diagnosis In Tibetan Medicine- Introduction

By Eliot Tokar
When most patients seek a doctor for a medical diagnosis, they generally assume that the process will clearly and directly reveal the truth about their condition. Their assumption is that the diagnostic procedure will reveal their illness in much the same way that cutting open an apple bears its core. In most cases, however, nothing could be further from the truth.

In examining the nature of diagnostic procedures, it is worthwhile to recall the Indian tale of the blind men who encountered an elephant. In this story each man, feeling only one part of the elephant, draws a completely different and erroneous conclusion about what he holds in his hands. None of them perceives that he is touching an elephant. Instead, judging from limited experience, each decides that the part he is experiencing must equal the whole: the leg is thought to be a tree trunk, the tail a rope, the trunk a snake, and so on.

In medical diagnosis we healthcare practitioners begin with our biases, based on our personal, cultural, and professional world view, thus forming the basis either for our blindness or our insight. We obtain a limited set of information that is derived from tests and/or other techniques defined by our tradition's medical science. Through this analysis, which is based on our understanding, experience, and awareness, we then attempt to comprehend the truth of the condition.

If we are to succeed we must do better than the blind men of the tale. By experiencing the trunk, leg, or tusk, we must be able finally to perceive the whole. We must ultimately have the insight and skill to see the entire elephant. However, and because of the blindness inherent in the prejudices and limitations of any world view, we inevitably see a slightly or even radically different elephant.