When I first read Joseph Zarconi's poem American Sonnet for an Addict, I thought it was asking many of the same questions that concerned me while writing my essay Re: Interesting Case. Both seemed interested in the uneasy space between a person's experience and the clinical language used to describe it. But I kept returning to the way the poem begins: "The doctor drags his learning flock into my room."
Read moreOn Healing, Suffering, and End-Of-Life Care
A medical student reflects on two pieces of fiction published in this journal that deal with the duality of suffering and healing.
Read moreOn Witnessing Another’s Pain—Or Is It Our Own?
When one exists in close proximity to the pain of another, whose testimony is it? A scholar reflects on the shared experience that can result from suffering.
Read moreHow to Hold Cold Hands by Laura-Anne White
I have spent my career as a nurse working with adult cancer patients. I, too, have experience with the self-protective tool of ‘numbing.’ Last spring, the COVID-19 pandemic hit New York City at full force, and I was temporarily transferred to an inpatient, COVID-19-positive cancer unit. I saw no one aside from co-workers, patients, and other essential workers.
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