Oprah Winfrey has recently reflected on the distinction between healing and curing in a new six-part series for her Super Soul podcast.
Speaking to PEOPLE, the former talk show host revealed she sat down with author Dr Abraham Verghese about his novel The Covenant of Water.
“Verghese is a doctor who deeply cares about his patients. They're real people to him, not just illnesses that need to be fixed,” said the 68-year-old.
Winfrey continued, “And he understands that even when a disease cannot be cured, the person with the disease can be healed.”
“I think that is just the most powerful thing in the world,” she added.
Verghese agreed to Winfrey, saying, “Watching them decline, I began to see that even when you could not cure, you could heal. And by that I mean even when you could not cure, it didn't mean you stepped away from the patient.”
“It meant that you did everything you could to help them come to terms with the illness, to make them feel that they were not being abandoned,” explained the doctor.
Meanwhile, Winfrey believed that the book is “a greater perception of life.”
“This concept appeals to doctors and non-doctors. But also, so many people are yearning for having that kind of medical care, having that kind of doctor in your life that comes from first being seen and touched,” stated Verghese.
Winfrey added, “This idea of seeing the patient as a real person and not just as a bunch of stats or information on a computer screen, and validating them in their illness, is what everybody's looking for.”
“Everybody's looking for a doctor like that,” she concluded.