Dr. Mary Howell: Medical Self-Care Advocate

By Dr. Tom Ferguson
Published on July 1, 1981
article image
ILLUSTRATION: FOTOLIA/LEREMY
Dr. Mary Howell encouraged the practice of medical self-care at every stage of life.

This issue’s column is a summary of a recent conversation between Dr. Tom Ferguson and Mary Howell. Dr. Howell holds an M.D. and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Minnesota. She was the first full-time woman pediatrician at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the first woman to serve as associate dean at Harvard Medical School. Mary is also the author of three books (Why Would a Girl Go Into Medicine?, Helping Ourselves: Families and the Human Network, and Healing at Home: A Guide to Health Care for Children), and is the women’s health editor of Medical Self-Care magazine.


FERGUSON: It is estimated that 80% of the attention given to ill people is provided by nonprofessionals and that almost all such treatment is handled by women. In other words, most health care is provided by nonmedically trained females. Why is that?

HOWELL: Because the great majority of human ills are too unimportant and commonplace to interest doctors. Problems such as colds, lower back pain, digestive, bowel, and urinary irregularities, general aches and pains, and the vast range of emotional difficulties are rarely life-threatening, but they may have a profound influence on the quality of a person’s life. The task of caring for such problems has traditionally fallen to women.

Therefore, although most folks usually think of healers in terms of male physicians, it would be more accurate to think of our “medics” as being predominantly laywomen. On my office wall I have a picture of an old woman holding a baby. Beneath it, there’s a quote from Adrienne Rich:

My heart is moved by all I cannot save: so much has been destroyed I have to cast my lot with those who year after year, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.

That’s what women have always done: They’ve reconstituted the world, without the help of any extraordinary power.

Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368