Aus·cul·ta·tion
1. The act of listening.
2. Medicine The act of listening for sounds made by internal organs, as the heart and lungs, to aid in the diagnosis of certain disorders.
I came across this uncommon word while reading a story about the use of a supersoaker water gun to clear out ear wax in a person who was on vacation (see CMAJ via www.boingboing.net). The story about the water gun was published in CMAJ's Auscultation section and, although the use of a water gun as a medical device is novel (and quite refreshing), I found the word "Auscultation" to be more interesting. Frequently used in medicine, it is not an everyday sort of vocabulary word.
In medicine, they even have developed teaching tools to help medical students with auscultation. For example, visit the online Auscultation Assistant which was developed by a medical student at UCLA. Ironically, the knock on physicians is that they are too focused perhaps on ausculation and not skilled enough at empathy. In fact, teaching better communication skills has become a priority at medical schools (see article on learning empathy).
As a psychologist, we are trained to be expert in auscultation, but we call it active listening. Its twin goals are to develop empathy and to make a diagnosis. Empathy , by the way, is defined as identification with and understanding of another's situation, feelings, and motives or the attribution of one's own feelings to an object. It is believed by many to be a key ingredient in psychotherapy and more broadly in helping a person to resolve or work through personal problems. To identify with and to understand emotions, however, is much more challenging than physical, organic sounds, such as a heart beat or wheezing.
I know of teaching videotapes that show people expressing verbally and nonverbally a range of emotions, but they are obviously less precise than listening to heart beats. This is what makes trying to master empathy such a challenge. It is not as scientific. It requires what some call emotional intelligence. Others believe that empathy is more of an art than a science or trait. It is something that some people may have more skill at doing than others.
In life, I think we need to do a better job at both auscultation and empathy -- balancing reason and emotion. Sometimes, we need to be quick to judge and act. Other times, we need to be patient and understanding. It's a life time of learning. I think philosophers, religious scholars, and our elders just refer to it as wisdom.
Posted by richlee at January 10, 2006 10:02 AM