Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Doctor?
The desensitization starts on the first day of medical school, when each student is given a scalpel with which to penetrate his or her cadaver: ‘the ideal patient,’ as it is nicknamed since it can’t be killed, never complains, and never sues. The first cut is always difficult. Three months later, the students are chucking pieces of excised human fat into a garbage can as nonchalantly as if they were steak trimmings. The emotional skin-thickening is necessary–or so goes the conventional wisdom–because without it, doctors would be overwhelmed by their chronic exposure to suffering and despair. Dissociation is part of the job…
The above passage is from the book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. (HT to Jason Shafrin.)
I don’t think I’m up to it. Especially the part about chucking human fat into the garbage can.
It is a bit gruesome.
I guess I do not have what it takes to be a doctor (I’m a health economist; I don’t think I could take being around sick people all day).
Doctors would be nervous wrecks if they internalized
their patients’ fear, worry, resentment and other negative emotions. There is a difference between exhibiting a good bedside manner and really letting your emotions get caught up in your patients’ pain and suffering.
Agree. A tad on the gorey side. Not for the faint-hearted.
What blows my mind is thinking about all of the people who broke into graveyards for anatomy lessons. If it takes a special type of person to cut into a cleaned and preserved cadaver in a controlled environment like a lab, then it takes a REALLY SPECIAL person to dig one out of the ground (where time of death may have long since passed) and drag them back to your house so that you can inspect their internal organs. Imagine the cleanliness issues related to that.
Obviously you need the right stuff.
Virginia, in Dr. Frankenstein’s case, I think he delegated a lot of that to Igor.
Neil, as would I!
This is a highly gratuitous or perhaps self-serving passage. The “steak trimmings” comparison is purely sensational. I have not read the book nor do I know the author but I could not disagree more with the contention. Dissociation is a psychological defense mechanism or even a psychiatric disorder in which anxiety provoking acts, thoughts etc. are separated from the rest of the psyche. Physicians are taught to think rationally first and to listen to emotion second but not to negate emotions. In anatomy lab considerable time is spent teaching reverence for the individuals who gave their bodies for this purpose but also to the rational benefits of studying anatomy in its physical form. I believe any committed person can achieve this balance.
As a surgeon for over 30 years I can tell you that there is never a case in which one is not aware of the emotional aspects related to performing a procedure on a person, but one cannot allow these to impact on reason or performance.