Peter Block, headlines his website with this quote from Thomas Merton –
Do not depend on the hope of results … In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.
(I wonder if we should have that painted onto the walls of every consulting room?!)
He was recently interviewed by Tami Simon in the Sounds true Insights at the Edge programme. She initially asks him about idealism, which he defends –
Well, when you defend idealism, you defend imagination. You defend possibility. You defend the world of ideas. The argument against idealism is the wish to be “practical”—the wish for an evidence-based world, the wish for proof. Idealism affirms the place of mystery, not knowing, and caring about things that are [immeasurable]. So I always see the argument against idealism as the argument against democracy, the argument against love, the argument against justice and equity, and all the things that our culture has abandoned in the name of privatization and economic well-being.
I was often “accused” of being an idealist as a teenager, and it was always a charge I was happy to accept. I still do. I completely agree with him about the place of mystery, and about caring about things which are immeasurable.
He then goes on to discuss how being “results minded” values doing what is already being done, and repeating it. I remember Sir Harry Burns, the Chief Medical Officer of Scotland saying how he worried that “evidence based medicine” was being used to stop innovation and development, how if all we do is keep doing what we have already “proven”, then we will hold back improvement and creativity.
It’s just [I know] that the conversation about results-orientation doesn’t produce results. When people say they’re “results-minded,” I know that they just want to recreate the past. Underneath it all, they’re kind of bored. So that language of a tough-guy adolescent—zero defects; failure is not an option; total results-oriented; if you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist; evidence-based medicine; evidence-based education. All that language doesn’t take us anywhere.
I’m sure some people will find that view controversial, but it sure “sounds true” to me.
Finally, I really liked his suggested question for us to ask ourselves….
What would it take to create a future distinct from the past?
Heroes Not Zombies 
It is a pity that NHS has this credo of “evidence based medicine” that’s being fed by the pharmaceutical industry whenever possible to overpower alternative medicine. It squeezes out any chance for healing outside the box and creates havoc in patients who want to heal, but are discouraged by the claims of “non-scientific” or “unproven” etc. while in reality the “evidence based” medicine does not guarantee a recovery to anyone at all.