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"This book argues that by allowing patients to move them [emotionally], physicians gain access to a source of understanding illness and suffering that can make them more effective healers." By the beginning of the 21st century, this statement, which opens the preface of Halpern's book, should be inarguable. Instead, it remains controversial. Virtually all medical students, when confronted by the very sick, are moved by their patients' plight. They often feel so connected to their patients that they begin to have symptoms similar to theirs or experience painful loss at their deaths. These reactions to sadness, tragedy, and loss continue
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