Twenty or so people attended. We rearranged our chairs to form a circle. The process and the content were very democratic. Lanny gave his definition of Liberation Medicine. Each of us talked about what we thought Liberation Medicine might be about and how the idea related to our experiences.
Compassion means empathy and kindness.
Caring is fundamental to good medicine. Humility is the most difficult, especially for doctors, but can best be described as a radical equality with those whom we accompany. The group agreed that these three values, so little found in clinical medicine and medical teaching, are essential to the practice of Liberation Medicine. Liberation Medicine immediately brings to mind Liberation Theology, the movement that interpreted Jesus' teaching as a radical call for the equality of all people and to caring for one another, which began in the 1960's within the Catholic Church after Vatican II and the Bishops' Conference in Medellin, Colombia. Martin-Baro was greatly influenced by the Liberation Theology movement and pointed to it as his inspiration for Liberation Psychology.