How careproviders can acquire and apply greater wisdom

In this issue of JCE, Baum-Baicker and Sisti present senior psychoanalysts' views of wisdom.1 Although views on wisdom differ widely, 2 there is agreement that when ethical conflicts arise, wisdom may be critical in bringing about an optimal result. Here I will present recent empirical findings on wisdom and the ways careproviders may acquire and apply it, especially in ethical conflicts.The findings are not wellknown and may seem counterintuitive; I selected them, in large part, for those reasons. A core challenge may be to decide when to give patients standard care and when to make exceptions. In this issue of JCE, Baum-Baicker and Sisti discuss exceptions and Bursztajn and colleagues ³ consider how these exceptions may be further validated as evidence-based treatments.