A Reflection on Jean Watson’s Theory of Human Caring in Relation to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
So this is how I tie in my geeky-ness with academia. And yes, there is a difference. Behold, my favorite graded academic paper written... SO FAR! haha Although I doubt I'll ever have an opportunity to ever write a valid paper like this ever again. =P
A Reflection on Watson’s Theory of Caring in
Relation to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
“Nursing is a calling and not just another career to pursue,” many say. Upon entering nursing school, I pondered exactly why I chose to become a nurse and the recurring theme that came about was that I wanted to care for people. What is it to care? Nursing has been long associated with this concept yet definitions vary and are unclear. Jean Watson sought out a “common meaning and order” in nursing that would be viable regardless of specialty or location, leading to the development of the Theory of Human Caring (Watson & Woodward, 2010). Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, a Japanese television program, touches upon ideas, such as the meaning of being human, which can be seen through the framework of Watson’s Theory of Human Caring.
Summary of Watson’s Theory of Caring
The Theory of Human Caring can be classified under the unitary-transformative paradigm, under the assumption that humans are whole and connected to everything in the universe through cosmic love, according to Watson (Watson, 2008). The main components of this theory include the ten Carative Factors that later evolve into Caritas Processes, the cultivation of a transpersonal caring relationship between the caregiver and the care receiver, the caring moment, and the caring-healing consciousness (Watson & Woodward, 2010).
Watson originally formulated a framework for nursing named the ten “Carative Factors”, as opposed to “curative factors” used in medicine, to emphasize that the “core” of the nursing discipline is based on healing from within and the human aspects in each of us (Watson, 2008) (Watson & Woodward, 2010). Over time, Watson found that the Carative Factors she had created were not flexible enough to reflect the past, present and future (Watson, 2008) (Watson & Woodward, 2010). She expanded them so that they accentuated the concepts of caring and love, thus the Carative Factors evolved into the Caritas Processes, which translates “to cherish and appreciate, giving special attention to, or loving” in Latin (Watson & Woodward, 2010, p. 353).
Transpersonal caring is the foundation of practice in which the individual is seen beyond their illness, diagnosis or physical body and is understood as a spirit that is whole. The caregiver enables the person to discover “the healer within” by working with them to find and preserve the person’s unique meaning of their existence, definition of wholeness and what it is to live and die (Watson & Woodward, 2010, p. 357). The interaction between the caregiver and the care receiver, known as the Caring Moment, requires both parties to make a choice on how to be and how to act in that relationship at that particular moment. This also calls for the caregiver to be consciously present not only as a physical entity but as a human soul connecting with another Being genuinely present allows the caregiver to become more attentive to the state of the care receiver’s spirit, which may be in discord at that time. In turn, being present permits the caregiver to provide focused spiritual healing that transcends pathology. Under the transpersonal Caritas energetic field model, the “energetic heart-centered presence” of both individuals during the Caring Moment emits a field of love that influences a greater field beyond themselves (Watson & Woodward, 2010, p. 356). It is during these moments we learn to be human. Wisdom we garner from the experiences we share with others contributes to the universal human consciousness, for “the self we learn about is every self” (Watson & Woodward, 2010, p. 358).
Nurses are considered as “wounded healers” constantly striving to become more compassionate and are consistently learning with each passing experience (Watson & Woodward, 2010). However, Watson expresses that in order to deliver authentic caring for others, one must first be able to provide “caring, love, forgiveness and compassion” for him or herself (Watson, 2008, p. 41).
Application to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Through the study of art and the humanities, human consciousness can be realized. Regardless of the medium, the study of the humanities can evoke emotions and trigger a plethora of explanations as well as questions leading to personal growth (Watson & Woodward, 2010). For me, a Japanese television program called Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood changed my perspective on what it is to be human and the value of creating bonds with others. The story revolves around two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, who are young prodigies in alchemy, a form of science in which elements can be transmuted to take on a different form. Edward and Alphonse happily lived with their mother in a rural town after their father’s departure until tragedy struck and their mother expired. Devastated by their mother’s passing, the two brothers attempted to revive her with the use of alchemy and naively disregarded that resurrecting the dead is taboo. Under the law of “equivalent exchange” in alchemy, nothing can be created in isolation. Something of equal worth must be given to receive another in return. At the cost of Alphonse’s organic body and Edward’s left leg, an incomplete, monstrous form of their mother was created. Edward sacrificed his right arm to save Alphonse’s soul and embedded it in a suit of armor using his own blood to draw a transmutation circle, a medium used to perform alchemy. With the help of their neighbors, Pinako, a grandmother figure to the boys, and Winry, a childhood friend, Edward was able to recover with durable artificial limbs and Alphonse was able to adapt with his new body as a hollow suit of armor. Overwhelmed by guilt for leading each other into this predicament, the brothers promised each other that they would retrieve their original bodies. They set out in search of the Philosopher’s Stone, which is said to amplify alchemic powers and ignore the rule of equivalent exchange.
“What does it mean to be human?” Watson asks those who consider using her theory in their practice (Watson & Woodward, 2010, p. 359). Is a human just an amalgam of water, carbon, ammonia, lime and other trace elements, as Edward describes in an episode, as the cheap ingredients to create a human or is being a human something more? At one point in their journey, Alphonse, who no longer has the physical functions of a human body including the need to eat, to sleep, or the ability to feel physical pain, questions his existence. However, even as a hollow suit of armor, Alphonse feels joy during encounters with a friend, grief upon witnessing death, hope in regaining their original bodies and love for whom he deeply cares, including his brother. Watson (2008) states that it is the emotions of love that makes us human. Edward was also confronted with this quandary during a battle with opponents who had armor bodies similar to Alphonse’s. “With bodies like these, are we even people?” his opponents questioned. Edward explains that he considers them as human because he considers his brother human. In the midst of their misfortunes and anguish, Edward and Alphonse are able to muddle through with the love and support they receive from others and especially from each other, for it is “love that could free us from mysterious cycles of suffering” (Watson, 2008, p.42).
Right after their mother’s passing, Edward and Alphonse decide to hone their skills in alchemy under the tutelage of Izumi, a gifted alchemist who saved their village from a flood. However, before Izumi could accept them as pupils, she sends them off to a stranded island for thirty days to interpret what is meant by “One is all, all is one.” Izumi’s reasoning that “there is no better knowledge than experience” is consistent with Watson’s idea that for one to truly understand the caring theory, one must personally experience it (Watson & Woodward, 2010). The boys struggle in the first few days, unable to slaughter animals on the island for food, until Edward arrives to an epiphany. “I am alive because I eat life,” he says. The two begin to understand that if they did not eat the animals for food, then they would become part of the earth themselves like the great circle of life that consists of change, illness, suffering, death and rebirth that Watson mentions (Watson, 2008). They come to a realization that “all things are connected and everything is in the middle of a great unseen flow,” just as Watson perceives human beings as interconnected within the universe in the caring consciousness (Watson & Woodward, 2010). In other words, the proverb “One is all, all is one” can be associated with Watson’s principle of the holographic universe in which “the whole is in each part and each part affects the whole” (Watson, 2008, p. 10-11). The training that Izumi provided helped them find inner strength, a new perspective on life, and helped them heal from within by finding a new resolve. Izumi, who was not able to have children of her own, gained a sense of family with the boys as well as a sense of hope in seeing their determination to recover their original bodies. Watson mentions that nursing is similar to teaching when caring and love are involved, in that both parties reap the benefits of personal growth that last a lifetime (Watson & Woodward, 2010).
Watson states that by incorporating love and caring into our work, nursing becomes something grander than just a job (Watson, 2008). It becomes who we are and not just what we do. Upon studying the theory, I have regained a restored motivation to embody nursing as someone who can be authentically present for my patients even under time constraints and envision them as something greater than the diagnostic labels placed upon them. Gaining this new perspective of nursing has finally given me my own definition on what it is to truly care.
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