阅读理解
Psychology has a new application in the
field of medicine. Many doctors, together with their patients, are looking for
alternative methods of treatment of physical problems. In large hospitals,
modern therapy(疗法)seems to focus on the physical disease. Patients may
feel they are treated like broken machines. Some doctors have recognized this
as a problem. They are now using psychological therapy, in which the patient is
working with the doctors against the disease with the help of medicine. The
patient does not wait for the medicine and treatment to cure him or her, but
instead the patient joins in the fight.
The doctor knows that a disease affects a
patient's body physically. The body of the patient changes because of the
disease. He is not only physically affected, but also has an emotional response
to the disease. Because his mind is affected, and his attitude and behavior
change. The medical treatment might cure the patient's physical problems, but
the patient's mind must fight the emotional ones. For example, the studies of
one doctor, Carl Simonton, M.D., have shown that a typical cancer patient has
predictable attitudes. She typically feels depressed, upset, and angry. Her
constant depression makes her acts unfriendly toward her family, friends,
doctors, and nurses. Such attitudes and behaviors prevent recovery. Therefore,
a doctor's treatment must help the patient change that. Simonton's method
emphasizes treatment of the "whole" patient.
The attitude of a cancer patient receiving
radiation therapy, an X-ray treatment, can become more positive. The physician
who is following Simonton's psychological treatment plan suggests that the
patient imagine that he or she can see the tumor(肿瘤)in the body.
In the mental picture, the patient "sees" a powerful beam of
radiation like a million bullets of energy. The patient imagines the beam
hitting the tumor cells and causing them to shrink. For another cancer patient,
Dr. Simonton asks him to imagine the medicine going from the stomach into the
bloodstream and to the cancer cells. The patient imagines that the medicine is
like an army fighting the diseased cells and sees the cancer cells gradually
dying and his blood carrying away the dead cells. Both the medical therapy and
the patient's positive attitude fight the disease.
Doctors are not certain why this mental
therapy works. However, this use of psychology does help some patients because
their attitudes about themselves change. They become more confident because
they use the power within their own minds to help stop the disease.
Another application of using the mind to
help cure disease is the use of suggestion therapy. At first, the doctor helps
the patient to concentrate deeply. The patient thinks only about one thing. He
becomes so unaware of other things around him that he is asleep, or rather in a
trance(催眠状态). Then the physician makes "a suggestion"
to the patient about the medical problem. The patient's mind responds to the
suggestion even after the patient is no longer in the trance. In this way, the
patient uses his mind to help his body respond to treatment.
Doctors have learned that this use of
psychology is helpful for both adults and children. For example, physicians
have used suggestion to help adults deal with the strong pain of some disease.
Furthermore, such treatment may help the patient with a chronic diseases.
Suggestion has been used to change children's habits like nailbiting, thumbsucking, and sleeprelated problems.
Many professional medical groups have
accepted the medical use of psychology and that psychology has important
applications in medicine.
