Measuring Meaning

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Extract from online version introduction:

‘Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention. The capacity to give one’s attention to a sufferer is a very rare and difficult thing; it is almost a miracle; it is a miracle. Nearly all those who think they have this capacity do not possess it. Warmth of heart, impulsiveness, pity are not enough.’1

As GPs, suffering permeates our world. Suffering can arise from deprivations that affect the body, the mind, or the soul; often a combination of all of these. Yet suffering does not exist in the medical lexicon and we are not trained or assessed in how we alleviate it.

This article is also freely available online here.