Physical and Mental Health

Let’s

Split you down the middle;

dice you

&

compartmentalise your self

Into

Physical

and

well,

Metaphysical.

Spiritual;

Beyond, behind, beneath

The everyday,

tawdry

flesh and blood;

A higher

Sense of what is and

What is

Not.

I am a physical health doctor. (FRCP that’s me.)

Your malady

Is one which I can measure

With microscope

And

spectrometer.

The biopsy

I can

Hold up

To the light

And examine

For

birefringence.

I can touch, prod, manipulate,

Squeeze.

I, I am a doctor of the Mind.

They call me

Psychiatrist. (MRCPsych, blah, blah.)

The General Medical Council

Might see the

Duties of a Doctor

As a generic

Mix

Of

Corporeal

And

Evanescent;

I, however

Prefer the interpretation

Of the world

Before

Descartes.

When

Your depression

Was

A

Consequence

Of Hobgoblins

And I

Could

Drink your pee

To test for diabetes.

Such old-fashioned ideas,

Such past-it

Beliefs

Are now collapsing,

Thanks to the Wonder Machine (fMRI) and the like

Where we can watch

Thoughts

And ideas

Fizzling

Inside the brain.

I think,

Therefore

I must be.

I cough,

I bleed,

I cry,

I hallucinate.

Don’t play games with my essence,

Grow-up.

Dedicated to dualists everywhere.