Facing the Challenges of 21st Century Medicine Towards the Renewal of Mystery Medicine and Community Building

ANNUAL MEDICAL SECTION CONFERENCE

We are delighted to welcome Dr Marion Debus, joint Leader of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum, to this year’s conference. She will contribute to a theme close to her heart: the role and cultivation of therapeutic intuition and the courage to heal against the background of the increasing materialism in “post”-modern medicine, which now aims to invade the etheric sphere. Her talks will take into account some important aspects of Rudolf Steiner's Course for Young Doctors. Mindful of the 100- year anniversary of the Pastoral Medical Course, she will also address the esoteric background and deeper meaning of this course, and how it could be seen as an archetype of the different healing professions working together esoterically. This is integral to the question of the renewal of 'mystery medicine’.

Dr Marion Debus specialised in internal medicine, hematology and oncology. After working at the Havelhöhe Clinic in Berlin for 12 years, she became Head of the Oncology Department at the Arlesheim Clinic (formerly Ita Wegman Clinic) in Switzerland where she still works one day a week. Last September she was appointed joint Leader of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum.

On Saturday afternoon there will be a sharing of thoughts on ‘Talander’ – officially the ‘Anthroposophical Medical Trust (AMT)’ – a registered charity founded in the early 1980s in support of anthroposophical medicine (patients, education and research). The trustees hosted a weekend retreat last November looking at possible ways forward, bearing in mind the Trust’s original intention to work associatively in partnership with its beneficiaries – a creative challenge with a lot of potential for community building!

On Saturday evening there will be a Whitsun Festival, to which we welcome contributions from participants.

As usual, conversation groups will help us deepen and digest the content, while workshops will provide participatory experiences through colleagues’ fields of work and research.

Very much looking forward to welcoming you at the Conference!

Sibylle Eichstaedt and Carol Kirk

Programme