|
<Home>
<Bioethics> <Obstetrics
and Gynaecology>
<Marital Counseling >
Marital CounselingThe
time honoured image of the doctor as the father (or mother) image to be
confided in and consulted on family problems is rapidly disappearing.
Medicine is becoming fragmented and compartmentalized under the influence
of superspecialization. In some leading countries the medico-legal
aspects of the doctorpatient relationship have come to exert a dominant
influence on the practice. For centuries the medical professional
in Islamic countries has been called the 'wise man', a term that is synonymous
with 'doctor' until this very day. After a long career I firmly
believe that the doctor remains in a most suitable position to handle
family problems and perhaps rescue threatened marriages and bring reconciliation,
harmony and happiness into many homes: all without trespassing outside
the boundaries of medical practice. Once gaining their confidence
and establishing good rapport with them, a doctor can play a very positive
role in the lives of his patients provided he is aware of this aspect
of the doctor's duties, and is sensitive to their worries and pre-occupations
and able to listen to what they say and to what they refrain from saying.
It is quite often to discover that a husband and wife who share the intimacies
of one bed, nevertheless suffer an appreciable communication gap that
only their trusted doctor can bridge. A host of causes may threaten
a marriage, whether sexual, physical or behavioural, that an ordinary
person would not wish to speak about, or even realize that they are aetiological
in their marital dysharmony. In a large number of instance the keen
doctor can unearth them and perhaps put the trust he (or she) is accorded
to good use. To aquire some insight in the Islamic views about marriage
will certainly help. The Success of a marriage is less of an expression of the initial degree of matching between the couple to be, than it is of their capacity of adaptation to one another along the long journey of marriage. - The author.
|