Lecture Pst. SG yrs Vol. 18-11 June 12, 1990 cover

Speech
The Spirit of Man
Los Angeles, California
June 12, 1990

By
C. Everett Koop, MD, ScD

 

There are two versions of this speech; the one I gave on June 12, 1990 and an uncut
version from which I extracted the delivered speech. This presentation in the archive is
of the uncut version.

The Spirit of Man lecture, an annual affair, has been given by a long list of very
distinguished individuals. I chose to stick to Judean Christian tradition which views
human beings as a trinity, being a soul, possessing a body, and having a spirit. This ties
into whole person medicine. I said at the outset that I would offer my remarks in the
spirit of Caldwell Esselstyn who shared his aspiration that society’s most pressing
medical care problems should be addressed not only by our scientific expertise but also
by a nobility of spirit. I then announced that I would like to talk about something that we
all once were, something to which we all looked forward, something to which many of us
look back with fond memories, but something we didn’t like all that much as it happened
-- namely adolescence.

That beginning gave me the opportunity to talk about most things I had been interested in
during my tenure as Surgeon General and I tried to make the most of that opportunity.

(The pages on the front speech sheet were deleted for the presentation)