Medical
The contact person for the Medical Section is Simon Bednarek
The Work of the Medical Section
The questions that underlie the work of the Medical Section are: What is the nature of illness and what is the nature of a cure, whether this takes the form of a substance, a movement therapy, an artistic process or a conversation? What causes illness and how can healing be brought about? These are the two fundamental questions around which all the research of the Section revolves.
We are frequently asked for more detail about the tasks of the Medical Section, its colleagues and representatives, the way it works and the tasks of individual colleagues. Some of the answers will be found in the following.
The Section's tasks
When he founded the Medical Section during the Christmas Foundation Conference of 1923/24, Rudolf Steiner spoke of working towards the establishment of the system of anthroposophic medicine as being the most urgent task. All the study and work groups as well as the colloquia and conferences summarized in the following timetable of events serve this end. Other work serving the same aim is being carried out in over 40 countries where there are establishments for medicine as well as curative education and social therapy, general practices, clinics and training centres for medical work as well as eurythmy therapy, art therapy, curative education and social therapy, general and geriatric nursing, psychotherapy, biography therapy and more. Rudimentary though this work may still be, the greatness of the task gives it an inner orientation, strength and motivation to strive for its accomplishment also in everyday tasks.
Another important field is the exchange of experiences and ideas and the cultivation of working processes that foster community building within each professional group and also between different specialist groups both nationally and internationally. Much that is done in medicine is only possible if physicians, nurses and therapists work together in ways that are beneficial for the patient, instead of ignoring one another, which is detrimental to the patient. Another important aspect is the very necessary interdisciplinary work with the other Sections of the School of Spiritual Science, the members and institutions of the Anthroposophic Society, and those portions of the general public who are interested in anthroposophic medicine.
Collaboration and representation
Ita Wegman was the Leader of the Section from its founding. From the beginning she brought the various therapeutic professions together in the Section as well as setting up courses for nurses and curative teachers. She also established and cultivated collaboration with pharmacists, art therapists, eurythmy therapists and medical personnel both within Switzerland and in other countries. Her work over 22 years at the Clinical-Therapeutical Institute at Arlesheim (now Ita Wegman Clinic) revealed the different levels at which collaboration can take place. These are the levels illustrated by Rudolf Steiner on the blackboard during the Christmas Foundation Conference: the level of the School of Spiritual Science, the level of the Society, and the level of public work.
Vertical Lines: The Sections
Horizontal Lines:
The intended three Classes of the School of Spiritual Science and the level of the General Anthroposophical Society
Blackboard drawing by Rudolf Steiner
27 December 1923
Anyone whose personal life generates the initiative to do so can collaborate with the Section on any of these levels. Such a person can also ‘represent' the Section if her or his work or social tasks provides suitable backing for such representation.
The way the Section works
What ways of working are suited to this vertical structure of the Medical Section, which it shares with the other Sections? The vertical direction shows that it is the task of the Sections to realize a spiritual impulse in earthly life. As Rudolf Steiner stressed during the Christmas Foundation Conference, such an impulse reaches from above downwards. Just as the questions that arise in life can be worked on at various levels, so does the work done in the School of Spiritual Science and in the Anthroposophical Society want to find its way back to real life in order to become fruitful there. Rudolf Steiner repeated over and over again during the Christmas Foundation Conference and in his letters to the members that what matters is 'to do anthroposophy'.
A central motif in all the Sections is the concept of 'being a representative' or of 'realizing anthroposophy in all the details of life'. In the lecture of 7 July 1924 in Curative Education (GA 317. Tr. M. Adams. London: Rudolf Steiner Press 1981) we read: 'One must regard as entirely real everything that flows from the Goetheanum into its various establishments; therefore the only way things can happen in the future will be that everything that in future is to work in an anthroposophic way must go through the various Sections, for this Anthroposophical Society must become an organism in which the various responsibilities flow like life-blood. Things do work together in the right way if there is a proper sense for them. Just as in the human organism heart and kidneys have to function in harmony so that a uniform result can be achieved, so must the Sections work together [said Rudolf Steiner, turning to the curative teachers] to achieve what you now wish to achieve, for the Sections cultivate that substance for which each is separately responsible. So someone who undertakes a task in the world must allow his work to include what emanates from the Sections, and work in anthroposophy must be founded in reality.' This goes to show that there are two prerequisites for every form of work arising within the Section. On the one hand there is the will of the individual, his or her personal initiative; on the other there is the fact that every initiative both touches on and is influenced by the life and work of other individuals. The latter also means that anthroposophic medicine is made known to the general public by every individual who practises or represents it. So in the social sense there exist not only internal reasons why collaboration and community-building are necessary in order to achieve a degree of quality and intensity in the work, but also external ones arising from the fact that from the outside anthroposophic medicine is experienced as a unity. Thus it is expected that its representatives know one another and that they consult and agree about important decisions which concern anthroposophic medicine as a whole. There must also be locations where people are available for discussion when questions are asked or information is sought. In the form of work he initiated, Rudolf Steiner expected people to come together out of their own initiative so that together they might reach an understanding of essential questions and agree on who should represent them and, if necessary, be their spokesman. This is valid not only for the Anthroposophic Society but also for the way the Sections collaborate with one another. To 'elect', 'nominate' or 'appoint' representatives or responsible spokespersons will always be fruitful where life and work require this to be done for the good of the matter in question.
Effective colleagues usually owe their presence to concrete considerations rather than abstract requirements. They hold their position in the work--or as 'representatives' in the above sense--because they have proved equal to the requirements of daily life and work.
In keeping with this, colleagues in the Medical Section have only proved capable of mastering situations in the long term if they have been chosen for real rather than abstract reasons. At present there are colleagues and representatives in the following fields:
Anthroposophic medicine:
Worldwide Assembly of Councils of Anthroposophic Medical Associations.
Curative education and social therapy:
The Section Circle; the 'Konferenz' for Curative Education and Social Therapy; the training circle, the social therapy group and other specialist groupings that enable the work to be further structured and intensified.
Eurythmy therapy:
Circle of Heads of Eurythmy Therapy Training Schools; an incipient international collaboration of professional associations of active eurythmy therapists
Art therapy:
European Academy for Anthroposophic Art Therapy; Worldwide Circle of Heads of Art Therapy Training Schools; Councils of national art therapists' associations; the latter are working towards international collaboration.
Mistletoe research:
Assembly of Producers of Anthroposophic Mistletoe Preparations (Mistletoe Circle).
Nursing:
International Nursing Circle which includes representatives of the national nursing associations. The Training Circle for Nursing is also attached to the International Nursing Circle.
Physiotherapy and rhythmical massage:
Initiative Circle for Anthroposophical Physiotherapy and Massage; this circle is working towards international collaboration.
Legal and political interests:
Circle with Responsibility for Physicians, Producers and Consumers (Filder Circle); Association of Anthroposophic Clinics, Hospitals and Sanatoriums; International Association of Anthroposophic Medical Associations (IVAA); International Association of Producers (AF-MUTA); an assembly of councils of patient associations is being formed.
Specialist groups for medical training and further training:
Worldwide Assembly of those responsible for medical training; specialist working groups for pastoral medicine, teachers, priests, physicians, doctors at Steiner Waldorf schools; there are also meetings for gynaecologists, midwives, ENT specialists, paediatricians, psychologists and psychiatrists working in psychotherapy, orthopaedic therapists, Bothmer gymnastics therapists, dentists, young physicians; Association of Physicians of the Halde Conference; medical working groups at the Goetheanum who share special concern for collaboration with the General Anthroposophical Society in specialist fields; Section Circle for Pharmacists; regional working groups for pharmacists; cardiology study group; neurophysiology study group; group for research into rhythms; group for a cosmological comprehension of the human being and pharmaceutics; veterinary medicine, initiative for academic research in anthroposophical medicine.
In view of this great variety of responsible groups that are at present keeping the 'life blood' of the Section in circulation the question arises as to whether and how an organ can form that will be capable of arriving at an overall perception of the medical movement and its position in the world.
Hitherto it has been customary to regard the Worldwide Assembly of Councils of Anthroposophic Medical Associations as the central organ
Medical Section For information about the Medical Section in New Zealand contact Dr Simon Bednarek
What it means to be an active member of the Medical Section
How do we develop a feeling of being part of it that will enable us to do justice to our mission as a professional community of medical practitioners and therapists?
The impetus came with my recent trip to the USA where Section members of all professions coming from Canada and the USA met in Kimberton/Pennsylvania.
During the afternoon representatives of the different professions would meet, whilst in the morning and evening we all considered the question of how we can make the Raphael Mystery bear fruit in daily practice and what it means that the Temple of which Rudolf Steiner wrote in his Mystery Plays and which is also the dominant theme in Goethe's Tale, has now risen above ground. In the Goetheanum building idea it can become a social reality among all of us in the anthroposophic movement. As part of this, plans are afoot in the USA and Canada to establish a central Medical Section Office, similar to the Medical Section Liaison Group in Britain, appointing colleagues who will support and co-ordinate the Section's work locally. Discussing the different areas to be covered and developed in the context of such Section activity, I became aware how important it is to consider, and also put down in words, the remit of such a national body representing the Section and what it means to be an active member of the Section in one field or another.
How does one become an active member of the Medical Section?
Quite simply by seeing one's professional work in the context of the Goetheanum mission and wanting to communicate with other members about the study and further development of anthroposophic medicine.
Why, then, do we need 'coordinators'? Surely it is enough for every member to have initiative experience of his membership? Would the forms needed for cooperation then not arise of their own accord? One thing is certain.
Coordination of the Section's work is not a matter of hierarchy but of service. If a local or national representative body evolves its purpose can only be to assist the activities and aims of individual members. Decisions as to what services are needed are arrived at in agreement between the members of the Section and the Section representatives in Dornach.
Why do I feel it is important to state this clearly and what needs to be considered?
As soon as a body representing the Section takes shape in a country, questions are asked as to how this affects the relationship of members among themselves and of individuals to the Goetheanum. Thus I am asked if it will still be possible to address questions or matters of concern directly to the Medical Section or if this can now only be done via the representative body.
The only answer I can give is that a national representative body should exist to help individual relationships and not hinder them, to serve communication but never be in its way. The way I see the function of a regional or national body representing the Section is to strengthen the work locally, so that collaboration between and within the different professions may grow more intensive and that the task the Section has at the international level will be carried out on a regional basis, which is to know oneself to be in touch with all professional groups and members and maintain active collaboration. With the principle clearly established, we may also consider how to structure the work in general in such a way that we waste as little effort and energy as possible and that the work can flourish. Section work really comes alive and is helped by the three ways of working, or the three attitudes to life on which the Constitution of the Anthroposophical Society and School and Spiritual Science is based:
- The principle of individual initiative (building and work principle in the Anthroposophical Society)
- Brotherly communication about initiatives and keeping in touch with other members (style of working for the School)
- The will to use one's individual and social skills to serve medicine (ethos of Section members).
I very much hope it will be possible for us to spot any claims to leadership as they raise their head or any inappropriate use of power and overcome them in all areas where we introduce administrative measures in the life and work of the Medical Section. Let us hope that the work itself will provide guidance and direction. The more our interest focuses on it, the more certain can we be that our love for the work will provide the corrective for anything that might be too personal.
When the councils of the medical associations meet in September we will continue to consider the matter of national bodies to represent the Section and report on it in this publication.
Finally let me refer to one aspect of being a member that seems to be of the greatest importance to me for the century ahead.
What does it mean for the Goetheanum itself to have people actively collaborating with it all over the world?
It means that the Goetheanum has representatives all over the world and gets known as an institution that plays a role in cultural life wherever people are working in the spirit of the Goetheanum. How would it be if each of us were to see ourselves as working with the Goetheanum as we do the best we are capable of doing, quietly or explicitly so? At present the reality still looks very different. Initiatives and publications are mostly created in people's own names or in the name of an institution. Yet when problems or difficulties arise, people tend to say the fault lies in the anthroposophic movement or the inadequacy of the leaders at the Goetheanum. It would be inspiring to reverse the order of this, with each of us taking responsibility for difficulties and problems and telling the world that we are working out of the anthroposophic movement and represent the Goetheanum whenever we are successful in some area or other. This would give the Goetheanum and the anthroposophic movement a new name as the source spring of work well done.
Dr Michaela Glöckler
The Leader of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum