Statement by Jeffrey Sosinsky, MD

As evidence against the preposterous assertion that Aesthetic Realism is against higher learning I present the following instance from my own life.

I first started studying the philosophy Aesthetic Realism while I was in my second year of medical school. At that time I wasn't happy with school and there was a question about whether I would continue. Because of what I began to learn from Aesthetic Realism, things changed dramatically, and my career got back on track.

I got from Aesthetic Realism a clearer idea of why I wanted to be a doctor in the first place. By the time I got to medical school, my feeling for people, and science, and my desire to be of use medically, which had started as a child, were becoming less important to me, being replaced, more and more, by thoughts about the prestige, power and economic rewards that I expected to come with being a doctor. Aesthetic Realism helped me remember the feeling for people I started with, and see that the basis on which I would truly be proud would be how honestly useful and kind I am as a doctor. I was reminded that the great body of knowledge in medicine didn't exist so that I could have an MD appended to my name and a lot of money in my pocket, but for the purpose of helping people. My dedication and love for medicine returned and my studies flourished. Not only did I graduate and become Board Certified, but I went on to be a director of a free clinic in New York City for many years.

My wife, who is a nurse practitioner, and I have both come to feel it is horrible that a person who is ill and worried about his life has to worry also about the expense of his illness and how he will come up with the requisite money. What is the effect of this worry on him and his family? Learning from the ethics of Aesthetic Realism has helped us both see that medicine doesn't exist as a means for one person to make profit from the illness and concern of another.  For a doctor or nurse to withhold information and care from those who can't come up with the right amount of cash is despicable. We are proud to see that medicine, the advances of science, and we, as medical practitioners, are there for the benefit of all people.

The feeling for what people deserve from me, and to have people be better off continues to grow and grow, encouraged by the ethics of the philosophy Aesthetic Realism. I understand better what good will is, and how to have it, and what in a person opposes and stands in the way of having it.  Because of this, I have had, I believe, a much more successful career as a physician. I have deep feeling for my patients, and they seem very glad that I am their doctor. I look forward to many more years of growth as a person and doctor.

As to the false assertion that one has to live "within walking distance" of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation: I am happily married and live with my wife and daughter in Brooklyn, New York.

I hope that what I have said in the preceding paragraphs will help make clear why a person could come to love Aesthetic Realism so much and be so grateful to its founder, Eli Siegel, for developing it, and to the teachers of Aesthetic Realism who have worked to have it known.