This paper aims to show Empedocles' influence on Hippocratic medicine through the analysis of two Hippocratic writings, i.e. On Ancient Medicine(AM) and On the Nature of Man(NM). I think that the author of AM criticizes philosophical physicians or natural philosophers, especially Empedocles, that at least Empedoclean philosophy is not necessary to medicine. On the contrary, the author of NM positively receives Empedoclean position in several aspects. It is necessary to examine these two writings in order to consider Empedocles' positive and negative influences on Hippocratic Medicine. The author of AM attacks the philosophical physicians who lay down as a hypothesis for their account hot or cold or wet or dry, in other words the same one or two things as the primary cause of all diseases. But it does not seem clear what the point of his criticism is. I think that his criticism lies on the following three points: (1) Hot or cold or wet or dry is neither the important cause of disease nor the important element for therapy;(2) The cause of diseases is not the same one or two things, but myriad things; (3) hypothesis as assumption is not necessary to medicine. These three points implies the criticism against cosmology and methodology of some early Greek philosophers, in particular Empedocles. Accordingly we should notice that the author attacks physicians influenced by Empedocles especially. Then whom does attack the author of AM? Lloyd points out Philolaus as the author's opponent, since he argues that man consists of the hot(Lloyd, 1963: 124-25). But I think that Lloyd narrowed down the opponent's range excessively. For example, if a physician holds that we consist of hot, cold, dry and wet, and that these are causes of diseases, does he belong to those whom the author attacked, or not? At a glance he doesn't seem to do. Because he lays down not one or two things as the cause of diseases, but four. But strictly we should tell that he does only two. Because hot and cold are contrary, and so both can not be causes of an disease at the same time. The same account applies to dry and wet too. Therefore even if someone lays down hot, cold, dry and wet as causes of diseases, it is right to regard him as the author's opponent. Moreover if a physician explains diseases by hot or cold or dry or wet, whether these are substances or qualities, in my opinion he is the author's opponent. Thus the opponents' range can be enlarged. While the author of AM attempts to exclude Empedoclean thought from medicine, the author of NM adopts it so positively. This author rejects the monistic view about man in chapters 1 and 2, and in chapter 3 tells that man is composed of hot, cold, dry and wet. And in the subsequent chapters he argues that man's body is composed of the four humours, and associates each humour with hot, cold, dry and wet respectively. It is noticeable that the author takes the pluralistic view and thinks that elements are four in number, that he make much of hot, cold, dry and wet, and that he explains man' generation and health by the balanced mixture. This shows Empedocles' influence on the author. In addition, the author holds that man and cosmos have hot, cold, dry and wet equally, and their change in cosmos according to seasons brings the increase or decrease of humours to man's body. Here is Empedocles' theory of macrocosm-microcosm found.
Human Characteristics* ; Humans* ; Philosophy ; Seasons

Up to the present, the existing residency training in Korea, functions only as a factory to produce the heartless and increative medical technician. So, we performed the elective course in residency t raining especially about the basic medicine by the 18 residents for 5 years since since 1990 in college of medicne, Korea University. The residents who paticipate in the elective course, can have enough time to consider the nature, human and doctor and to act as a pioneer to study the basic science. Thus, we concluded that the elective course residency training about the interesting department can enables not only the increment of autonomy but also time to contact with the human nature and basic science.
Human Characteristics ; Internship and Residency* ; Korea ; Rain

The author reviewed the relationship between psychotherapy and ego growth from psychoanalytic point of view. The effect of psychotherapy represents itself in ego growth. To illustrate this claim, the author reviewed Freud's concept on the effect of psychotherapy first and the concepts discussed in literatures after Freud. The main stance of this paper is that the effect of psychotherapy manifests itself in ego growth through therapeutic relationships. The author deduced that since the major part of the therapeutic process takes place unconsciously, one is unaware of his/her ego growth. Through psychotherapy, the immature part of the personality, which stoped growing in the course of development, starts to grow. It may be the ego growth either through gaining insight or the growth derived from the therapeutic relationship with the analyst. Mental illness can be looked upon as the loss of human nature, and the remedy lies in recovering the human nature. The lost human nature is recovered when one is in a therapeutic environment, that is very much maternal in nature. Psychotherapy may result in some changes in brain physiology or neurochemistry. It may take some time to bring about anatomical changes of the brain. If this assumption is correct that psychotherapy inflicts anatomical changes of the brain for it's positive effects, it should be accomplished through a long period of working-through of the problem. Some studies on this theme of neurophysiology and anatomical research are already in process and I hope to be able to explain the processes of psychotherapy in the near future.
Brain ; Ego ; Hope ; Human Characteristics ; Neurochemistry ; Neurophysiology ; Physiology ; Psychotherapy*

Writing about advances in a field of medicine normally includes some pride about progress which one was witness to or even a participant in. The younger one is, the more enthusiastically every advance is lauded and welcomed. This is human nature and nothing to be complained about. However, when anesthesiologists, having worked and struggled in the field of pediatric anesthesia for about 40 years, look back to past advances, a more realistic, even painful picture comes to mind. There was a price which a considerable number of patients had to pay for progress, ruined health or even death. This experience of decades of practice is rarely presented in the literature but should not be forgotten when we proudly remember advances in pediatric anesthesia.
Anesthesia ; Human Characteristics ; Humans ; Wit and Humor as Topic ; Writing

Human hair, a kind of natural fiber mainly composed of keratin and keratin-associated proteins, is a good biological sample that can be used to characterize the status of the body in a certain period of time. It is of highly importance in the detection of drugs, alcohol and stimulants because of the advantages of low cost, easy collection, easy transportation and storage. Proteomics is an emerging technology widely used in the field of life sciences to study protein expression and regulation at the holistic level. Investigating the composition and dynamic changes of hair proteins in different populations would have great potential in finding disease markers and distinguishing personal traits. In this paper, the structure and composition of hair, the changes of hair composition under psychological stress, and the research progress of hair proteomics were comprehensively reviewed. This will help using hair proteomics to identify body characteristics.
Humans ; Human Characteristics ; Proteomics ; Hair/chemistry* ; Keratins/chemistry* ; Metabolomics

OBJECTIVE: Several decades ago Sutich, Walsh and Wilber said, "Transpersonal psychology has taken a position of the fourth emerging force", after the first three of psychoanalytic, behavioristic and humanistic psychology. There is a basis to confirm that transpersonal psychology and transpersonal psychotherapy are the new power of psychology. Namely they pursue entire spectrums of consciousness including the spiritual domain of human consciousness which the school of psychoanalysis, behaviorism and humanistic psychology did not emphasize. Transpersonal psychology is concerned with the study of optimum psychological health and well being, including traditional areas and techniques of therapeutic concern. Added to these it an interest in facilitating growth and awareness beyond traditionally recognized levels of health and, in so doing, it emphasized the importance of modifying consciousness. In addition to optimum psychological health and well-being, these areas included subjects such as altered states of consciousness, peak experience, self-realization, transcendent of personal levels and effects of meditation and other consciousness altering techniques. The representative theory of this is the basic structures of consciousness by Wilber. His basic structures of consciousness explain the essence of human beings and contain various lines of human development. He has limited his presentation to nine of the most basic and central levels, three of which are prepersonal, personal and transpersonal realms. There are several cases with the similar standpoint of consciousness of Wilber in Zen Buddhism of the Orient. One of them is the ode to the cow seeker and the picture to the cow seeker by Zen master, Kwak-am. Kwak-am explained the process of seeking the essence of a human being with 10 pictures trying to seek lost cow which is called "ten ox herding pictures". The odes to the cow seeker are added explanation of those pictures of the cow seeker Here, this paper introduces you the metaphor of odes to the cow seeker which was compared with basic structures of consciousness and discussed with some scholar's theories of personality development. Therefore, both metaphorical meanings of odes to the cow seeker and Wilber's basic structures of consciousness are an inquiry into the nature of human beings and this inquiry also links the process of the development of transpersonal consciousness Lastly, I tried to prove that transpersonal psychology draws on the contribution of both Eastern wisdom and Western science. METHOD: In order to discuss for correlation between odes to the cow seeker and basic structures of consciousness, a method was chosen for interpreting books which are related with these subjects. Among these books, the principal books for odes to the cow seeker were "Buddhistic words seeking himself" by Sunglim, "ox herding pictures", "ten series reaching enlightenment" by Hyee-ik Lee and the manual of zen Buddhism by D. T. Suzuki. The three books were compared with "ontogenic development", "two fundamental patterns" and the spectrum of development by Wilber. RESULTS: The results of the discussion were as follows. The 1st stanza, ode of searching for the cow is corresponded to the sensory physical mind, the 2nd stanza, ode of finding cow's footprints is corresponded to the phantasmic emotional mind, the 3rd stanza, ode of seeing the cow is corresponded to the representational mind, the 4th stanza, ode of catching the cow is corresponded to the rule/role mind, the 5th stanza, ode of taming the cow is corresponded to the formal reflexive mind, the 6th stanza, ode of coming home on the cow's back is corresponded to the vision-logic mind, the 7th stanza, ode of cow gone(the seeker remains alone), is corresponded to the psychic and subtle mind which consciousness belongs to the transpersonal level. The 8th stanza, ode of the cow and the seeker disappeared is corresponded to the causal level, and the 9th stanza, ode of returning to the source is corresponded to the ultimate mind which is connected to the eighth ode and abided as the absolute spirit. Strictly speaking, the ultimate state is not one level among others, but the reality, condition or suchness of all levels. Then, the 10th stanza, ode of entering a house in the market with help-bestowing hands is a scene which the transpersonal deity is not staying in contemplative life state but illuminating toward market people naturally as the flower blooms on an old tree in Spring. CONCLUSION: Human psychology tends to change to transpersonal psychology in order to understand the essence of human nature like abnormal behavior is destructive while sound is constructive with nature. The 'transpersonal' combined with the term of 'trans' and 'personal' is a new psychology field which pursues the existence of spirituality. All creation with human beings has its spirituality moving immanently horizontally and it goes transcendentally vertically. Ode to the cow seeker tells the process how the consciousness of a person reachs out to be transpersonal beyond his boundary. The attitude of seeker after spirituality would be compared with the attitude of today's teacher. Therefore I would like to remark that psychotherapists and seekers of the essence of human-beings have to access the point of self-transcendence and also have to try to develop their self-introspection at the level of biopsychosocial-spiritual dimension in the base of psychodynamism. From birth to death, it is very hard to find a real Guru who guides us to find out the right ways of life. There's only ways to seek his own spirituality by relieving himself in the base of transpersonal movement and only a few seekers say that's the only way to find it. Besides this way, whether the way of life we take is repeated or comes to a deadlock.
Buddhism ; Consciousness* ; Flowers ; Hand ; Human Characteristics ; Human Development ; Humans ; Meditation ; Metaphor ; Parturition ; Personality Development ; Psychoanalysis ; Psychology ; Psychotherapy ; Reflex ; Spirituality

PURPOSE: Sasang constitutional medicine is Korea's creative medical science, that has attracted public attention. But for lack of indices in objectifying constitutions, there are difficulties for most of health professionals in approaching Sasang medicine. The purpose of this study was to compare the results of clinical diagnostic data according to the type of Sasang constitution. METHOD: The subjects were 195 examinees who had a general health check-up at A hospital. The instrument used for this study were Questionnaire of Sasang Constitution Class II(QSCCII) program for personal computer developed by Kim Sun Ho et al. RESULT: The distribution of constitutions of the subjects were the So-eum 46.7%, the Tae-eum 36.9% and the So-yang 16.4%. The level of body composition- related indices(body weight, obesity) of the Tae-eum were significantly higher than those of other constitutions. In heart-related indices, systolic BP were the highest in the Tae-eum. In liver-related indices, the level of triglyceride, SGPT were significantly higher in the Tae-eum. But the hematologic indices and lung-related indices were not showed significantly difference among any constitutions. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that there were significant difference of clinical diagnostic data according to Sasang constitutions, especially in the Tae-eum. So, to understand the human nature of nursing clients, nurses need to apply the oriental based medical theory, like Sasang constitution, to the discipline of nursing.
Alanine Transaminase ; Classification* ; Constitution and Bylaws* ; Health Occupations ; Human Characteristics ; Microcomputers ; Nursing ; Solar System ; Triglycerides ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: Since the infant formula milk has been produced in Korea, it has faced a low rate of breast milk feeding, though breast milk feeding is a little increasing. Therefore, the Korean Pediatric Society launched its website for breast-feeding consultation to provide information to the general public and enhance the health of growing infants. The consultation results were analyzed to identify the problems that mothers encounter during breast-feeding. METHODS: From August 1, 2004 to July 31, 2007, 1001 mothers who visited the online consultation webpage (www. pediatrics.or.kr) of the Korean Pediatric Society asked 1,021 questions. The questions were divided into 3 major categories and 14 specific categories. Interesting questions asked more than 100 times were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: The results for the major categories were as follows: 413 questions (40.3%) were on how to breast-feed, 315 (30.8%) on problems of feeding mothers, and 293 (28.8%) on problems of the fed babies. In the specific categories, 22.2% of the questions were on how to breast-feed. With the increasing number of working couples and working mothers, many questions were asked on the problems of breast-feeding after returning from work. CONCLUSION: The author expects that analyses of these consultations will contribute to the enhancement of information on the consultation website, thus enabling to provide clearer answers to people's increased interest in and concerns on breast-feeding. Furthermore, this research will help to establish correct breast-feeding practice.
Family Characteristics ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant Formula ; Korea ; Milk ; Milk, Human ; Mothers ; Referral and Consultation ; Retrospective Studies

Before the completion of the Human Genome Project (HGP), the genetics tended to be reserved only to the experts in research fields. Now genetic information has become a matter of grave concern to consumers. Among other changes, genetic testing has increased our ability to understand and treat disease; it is increasing our understanding of the causes of diseases and is creating new challenges in relation to the delivery of health care. Consumers and health-care professionals have raised issues about the current status of the implementation and oversight of genetic testing, including the need to provide a line of evidence to establish the efficacy and cost-effectiveness before the tests become commercialized. In addition, as consumers' interests in and demand for new genomic technologies continue to rise, the need for timely and reliable information becomes increasingly crucial. The application of the principles of evidence-based medicine (EBM) seems to be difficult in clinical genetic testing for health-care providers, although practically relevant. This is because the demand for rapid advances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease is often at odds with the slow evolution of sound evidence. However, genetic information is inherently unique in that it runs through generations, can be predictive of future disease, can be used to stigmatize and discriminate individuals, and has potential psychological impacts. This is why genetic information deserves special considerations and should be dealt with differently from other medical information.
Delivery of Health Care ; Diagnosis ; Evidence-Based Medicine ; Family Characteristics ; Genetic Testing* ; Genetics ; Human Genome Project

BACKGROUND: The influenza is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. The primary target groups recommended for annual vaccination are healthcare workers and households which have frequent contact with persons at high risk and can transmit influenza to those persons at high risk. Members of these groups should be vaccinated against the flu so that they can avoid getting infected with continuously mutating influenza viruses. We assessed healthcare workers' knowledge and attitudes regarding influenza vaccination in order to help promote the vaccination rate. METHODS: This survey was carried out in two hospitals affiliated with the Catholic University School of Medicine, from December 2004 to January 2005. Of the 3,023 questionnaires distributed, 2,023 could be evaluated. RESULTS: The most frequently cited reason for receiving influenza vaccine was self-protection against influenza (55.4%). The most common reasons for not receiving influenza vaccine are personal health problems such as concurrent flu, pregnancy or breast-feeding (29.2%). There is no significant difference in the frequency of side effect between two groups receiving and not receiving vaccine. The most frequent side effect of influenza vaccination is flu-like syndrome; People receiving vaccine have more significant knowledge than those people not receiving vaccine about efficacy of flu vaccination, risk of influenza infection of healthcare workers and their need of flu vaccination. CONCLUSION: In order to promote the vaccination rate, education targeting people at high risk need to keep continuous and facilitate access to vaccination.
Delivery of Health Care* ; Education ; Family Characteristics ; Humans ; Influenza Vaccines ; Influenza, Human* ; Orthomyxoviridae ; Pregnancy ; Vaccination* ; Surveys and Questionnaires