Title: The Medicine Mage: 12 Steps from Depleted Doctor to Magic Healer of the New Earth
Author: Xumei Zhong
Publisher: Difference Press
ISBN: B08KWQ12KZ
Genre: Non-Fiction / Healthcare / Self-Help
Pages: 302
Reviewed by: David Allen
Hollywood Book Reviews
The Medicine Mage: 12 Steps from Depleted Doctor to Magic Healer of the New Earth, which brings a wealth of intelligence and insight to bear on healing in a chaotic, pandemic-tossed world, promises keys to burn out, alienation and anomie suffered by healthcare providers everywhere. The book delivers. Non-biomedical readers take heart – the wisdom and practical advice offered in these pages is relevant to everyone.
Self-help and healing books line Amazon and bookstore shelves. What is truly unique about The Medicine Mage: 12 Steps from Depleted Doctor to Magic Healer of the New Earth is that it written by a healer, for healers – and for all those they treat.
The depth of scholarship and experience brought to bear in this volume is profound. Dr. Xumei Zhong, who grew up in Shanghai and studied biochemistry, English, immunology, and pathology, draws widely upon Taoism, Buddhism and relevant personal experience to paint a syncretistic portrait which is timely, up to date, and eminently readable. Dr. Zhong, who consults to health care professionals searching for a better way, amplifies her narrative with excellent episodes from her work and life.
The book addresses the causes of health care burn out in the most stirring way: burned out health providers up to 60% of physicians complain of this make for less-than-ideal patient care. Causes of burnout include: mismatch between professionals’ expectations and reality; cognitive dissonance; and a tragically broken health care system. Doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals will find themselves in these pages! They will also find remedies for burnout, intelligently presented as a series of feasible steps that each can take to arrive at the career being the helper and healer they have always envisioned.
Dr. Zhong describes the ever-evolving health care ‘marketplace’ in grim dystopic terms. The world we are facing is one of corporate mentality, artificial intelligence, and assembly line diagnosis, intervention, and prevention. Remedies include: recognition of the problem; refocus of medicine on wellness rather than diagnosis; and a striving for a holistic approach to our bodies, minds and spirits. In the process, we will familiarize ourselves with mythological tradition, Chinese medicine, and an appreciation of the unity of life and creation. Fans of modern physics will also enjoy Dr. Zhang’s allusions to particle physics, quantum theory, and cosmology. She also describes a series of fascinating experiments whose outcomes challenge traditional beliefs about time and space.
This book is a winner. Dr. Zhong’s stated dream, No more sick doctors taking care of sick patients, is a wake-up call for us all. Readers choosing a book within the scope of the genres presented here would do well to pick this one.