Tag: communication
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Esperanto and the babble of dreamers
Simon Wein Petach Tikvah, Israel L.L. Zamenhof L.L. Zamenhof (1859–1917) was an ophthalmologist and philologist from Białystok, then in Russia, now Poland. In the 1880s, he created a new language called Esperanto. The word Esperanto comes from the Latin, spiro, which means “to breathe.” Spiro also means one who hopes. Thus, loosely translated, Esperanto…
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Flesh on flesh
Paul Rousseau Charleston, South Carolina, United States Holding hands. Photo by Jclk8888 on Pixabay. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. There is a solace to flesh on flesh, a laying on of the hands, a ritual of caring, but now, in our distant worlds, we hide in pixeled foxholes, tap, tap, tapping on computers, tablets, and…
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Medicine, musically
Willem Blois Halifax, Nova Scotia Robert Pope, Visitors (1989) “This painting is like a psychological ecosystem, where the worlds of healthy and sick meet.” (Pope 1991) I sat on the piano bench, head down, staring at the space between middle C and the key above it. I could see my teacher out of the…
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Montaigne’s Essays: Emotions and empathy
David JeffreyEdinburgh, Scotland The term empathy was coined a little over a hundred years ago and since then its definition has evolved. At first empathy was regarded as a sharing of emotions, but modern medicine emphasizes cognitive aspects of the concept.1 Regarding the sharing of emotion with suspicion has led to a form of professionalism…
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Bigger than a black box
Valeri Lantz-Gefroh Texas, United States Teaching in very different classrooms – at the National Science Foundation, National Academy of Sciences, NASA, and dozens of top medical schools, hospitals, and universities. I am an actor, director, and acting teacher. And my theater is a medical school in Texas. “Wait, what?” My life in the last…
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The language game of medicine
Gunjan SharmaDevon, United Kingdom “The arrow points only in the application that a living being makes of it.”– Ludwig Wittgenstein1 The language game Language is a fascinating concept when viewed through a philosophical lens. Imagine if we no longer had a word for jealousy. Would that mean such a thing could no longer exist? Jealousy…
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Signs
Jack Riggs Morgantown, West Virginia, United States Signs may be confusing and convey different meanings to various audiences (US military camp, Kuwait 2005). “This is no way to treat soldiers!” The lieutenant colonel was furious as he screamed at me over the phone. After sufficient venting had occurred, I ventured a nonthreatening interjection.…