What meaning does this conception of man have for humanistic nursing practice theory? This theory necessitates a nurse who accepts and believes in the chaos of existence as lived and experienced by each man despite the shadows he casts interpreted as poise, control, order, and joy.
Labeled mental patients in therapeutic situation, in the sun beyond the shadows, express how they set themselves apart from the rest of the community { 56} of man. They express how they experience themselves. They view themselves as the worst, the noblest, the unhappiest, the most maligned, and the most afraid. It comes out as if these superlative distinctions are their only claims to fame. In my humanness I appreciate the awesome dreads they live. They need to know that they exist in their unique distinctness. And yet, the separation and loneliness with which they adorn themselves and which professionally we have fostered with fear engendering diagnostic labels seem a heavier than necessary burden. In the light of existential loneliness, a part of each human existence, often I invite them to see themselves as not so unlike other men and as suffering the turmoil of existence as part of the human community, such as it is. One usually can note their surprise and disbelief of my view. Then, momentarily at least, tension seems to visibly fall from their faces and forms. When this idea of them is heard by them, its effect corresponds to how I experienced the technique in sensitivity group of literally being allowed to dance into what felt like the circle of man, our group.
To hear opportunities for humanistic nursing acceptance and support nurses, too, need to question their self-nurse-image within the nursing and health community. Do they know that they make and have real potential for making a difference, an important difference? Do they accept themselves as nurse? To me, a nurse is a being, becoming through intersubjectively calling and responding in her suffering, joyous, struggling, chaotic humanness, always trying beyond the possible while never completely free from ignoble personal human wants. And, through her presence it is possible for other persons to be all they can be in crisis situations of their worlds. For the nurse to be humanistic it is necessary for her to live her human condition-in-her-nursing-world proudly with all its vulnerability and all its wonders. As man, the nurse can recall and reflect on her "I," on her past "I-Other" experiences, and she can come to know and accept more and more of herself, as she becomes more. In humanistically recalling and reflecting a nurse will understand and respond empathetically and sympathetically to both her own humanness and the other's. She will recognize both self and other as "poor devil" and "poor saint," all-at-once.