Caring for a Broken World | Arthur Kleinman, MD

The Doctor's Art

Medical anthropology provides a lens through which we can view the intricate tapestry of human health, woven with the threads of cultural beliefs, social structures, and biological realities. Few have played a more significant role in creating this discipline than psychiatrist Arthur Kleinman, MD, whose early, extensive field work in Taiwan and China have shaped how we think about cross-cultural healthcare systems and their impacts on human suffering. Many of his books, including The Illness Narratives and Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture, have become seminal texts in medical anthropology. Dr. Kleiman is also a moral philosopher whose writings have explored the frailty of our existence and how uncertainty and crises sharpen our moral identities.

Over the course of our conversation, we discuss Dr. Kleinman's bold explorations of human wellness across cultures, the search for meaning amid pain and suffering, the struggle to lead a moral life, and medical anthropology as a clarion call for a more nuanced and empathetic approach to health and healing.

In this episode, we discuss:

2:26 - Dr. Kleinman’s path to medicine

7:00 - How anthropology and psychiatry became central to Dr. Kleinman’s work

11:23 - The four core questions that define Dr. Kleinman’s decades of study

16:09 - How cultural definitions of a healthcare system greatly impact its effectiveness and reach

22:12 - Finding meaning in experiences of pain and sorrow

33:56 - An anthropological view of human existence, morality, and ethics

46:00 - The basis for Dr. Kleinman’s book The Soul of Care

47:51 - How Dr. Kleinman’s search for meaning shapes his approach to medicine

50:35 - The delineation between “morality” and “Morality”

57:40 - Connecting to our shared humanity by “doing” care

Dr. Kleinman has authored seven books, including his most recent, The Soul of Care.

In this episode, We share excerpts from: Dr. Kleinman’s book What Really Matters, Morten Lauridsen’s choral piece O Nata Lux, and Bryan Stevenson’s book Just Mercy.

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