This shows the need to examine more closely our own reactions when working with patients as they will always be reflected in the patient’s behavior and can contribute a great deal to his well-being or detriment. If we are willing to take an honest look at ourselves, it can help us in our own growth and maturity. No work is better suited for this

Death is still a fearful, frightening happening, and the fear of death is a universal fear even if we think we have mastered it on many levels.

“I believe that we should make it a habit to think about death and dying occasionally, I hope before we encounter it in our own life. . . . It may be a blessing, therefore, to use the time of illness to think about death and dying in terms of ourselves.” (On Death and Dying

Instead of increasing alienation and isolation the couple find themselves communicating in more meaningful and deeper senses and may find a closeness and understanding that only suffering can bring.

Where the medical students have a choice of dozens of lectures on RNA and DNA but less experience in the simple doctor-patient relationship that used to be the alphabet for every successful family physician?

To postpone such talks is often not in the service of the patient but serves our own defensiveness.

I use these examples to emphasize the importance of our tolerance of the patient’s rational or irrational anger.

Since in our unconscious mind we are all immortal,

What happens in a society that puts more emphasis on IQ and class-standing than on simple matters of tact, sensitivity, perceptiveness, and good taste in the management of the suffering?