Every resultant is either a sum or a difference of the co-operant forces; their sum, when their directions are the same — their difference, when their directions are contrary. Further, every resultant is clearly traceable in its components, because these are homogeneous and commensurable. It is otherwise with emergents, when, instead of adding measurable motion to measurable motion, or things of one kind to other individuals of their kind, there is a co-operation of things of unlike kinds. The emergent is unlike its components insofar as these are incommensurable, and it cannot be reduced to their sum or their difference.

G.H. Lewes, 1875

Richard Barnes, “Murmurs”

The typical conversational use of the word emergence conjures up images of butterflies and chrysalises, or coming out into the light at the end of a long tunnel. These metaphors are certainly apt for me and my medical education, so that is the first explanation of this blog’s title as well as an allusion to its purpose.

Like the best things, however, emergence has more than one meaning. Broadly speaking, the philosophical and scientific concept of emergence refers to the complex patterns and functions – emergent properties – that can arise from the interactions of simple components. Because emergence is produced by interactions between these components, not the parts themselves, the emergent properties are not attributes of the individual components but only of the whole system. As I go through my medical education learning the minutiae of biochemical interactions, cell types, individual organs, and drug dosages, I am constantly striving to keep in mind the big picture. I am learning all of these discrete details because I have dedicated my career to caring for patients, each of whom is a complex person with needs and desires, situated in relationships, shaping and shaped by their illness, and with stories to tell. One of my primary goals as a physician is therefore to remember and act in accordance with the dictum of humanistic medicine: that patients are, quite literally, “more than the sum of their parts.”

It is these stories, as well as my own story of emergence as a physician, that this blog aims to tell.