Episode 5- Sympatheia

The Physio-Stoic Project

Sympatheia is the ancient Stoic word meaning affinity of parts to the organic whole, mutual interdependence. It basically means that we are all connected as human beings, even though we often divide ourselves into tribes, which serve our multiple identities. This is no more evident than within the mass media, which consistently portrays things in an "us vs them" context, and on social media. However, in reality, we are all more alike and probably agree on more things than we disagree. Especially within our field, the assumption should be that we are working towards the same goal- to help people, even though we may all go about it a little differently. Whether you subscribe to a particular school of thought or identify yourself as a particular type of practitioner, in the end, we're all doing similar things and striving for similar outcomes with our patients.