Developing Wisdom

According to Webster’s, Wisdom is accumulated philosophical or scientific learning that renders one the ability to discern inner qualities and relationships. In short, Good Sense. Solomon tells us that wisdom is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, agile, clear, unstained, certain, never harmful, loving the good, keen, unhampered, beneficent, kindly, firm, secure, tranquil, all-powerful and all-seeing.

In most societies, older people are considered wiser. As an older physician, I am hopeful that my experiences have created in me a wisdom that allows me to recognize and treat not only the physical and mental needs of my patients, but also their emotional and spiritual wants. Clearly my experiences have made me better clinically. The more I have seen the better I am in developing and narrowing down my differential diagnoses. So I am more intelligent. As a scientist I expect this. But have I developed Wisdom?

I know I am more thoughtful. I take more time to consider the patient holistically. I consider the effects of my decisions on the patient, the family and the healthcare system as a whole. I am definitely kinder, more loving, caring, clear, focused, purposeful and without a doubt more tranquil. Hmmmmmmm, I don’t remember any transformational moment. Has Wisdom snuck up on me?

Plato, in the Republic, notes that "old age has a sense of calm and freedom; when the passions relax their hold, we are freed from the grasp of not only one master but several". 

I often contemplate the aging brain. I know that my neurons cannot regenerate like my skin, and look how that has lost its elasticity! Does my brain truly retain some plasticity and additional recoupment of prefrontal neurons?

Am I just getting a little punchy? Am I hardened by the years in medicine to the plights of my patients and healthcare as a whole? How have the years affected how I perceive the world? Is there a wisdom in my approach? Have I developed “good sense”?

Dilip Jeste a renowned geriatric neuropsychiatrist specializing in wisdom discusses, in a 2015 TedMed talk, an unexpected evolutionary advantage to growing old; gaining sage wisdom.

You can view the talk here:

https://www.tedmed.com/talks/show?id=526815

So when I forget where I put my keys some days, I must remember that I have the evolutionary gift of wisdom that creates in me an ability to manage situations that in the past have baffled me. I think today, yes, I have “Good Sense”.