Heroes Not Zombies

Most of the time the light of the Sun simply illuminates the world distinguishing day from night. The light is invisible. We don’t notice it. But then occasionally we see something like this and the sky appears to be filled with obvious, even spectacular rays of light.

A scene like this grabs our attention. In that moment we see the sunlight.

Of course this phenomenon isn’t due to light alone. It’s an interaction between the Sun and water molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere.

But there’s something magical about this.

We feel we are seeing the invisible.

Saint Éxupery wrote in The Little Prince that what is invisible is essential. That’s one of my favourite passages in the book.

I often thought of myself as a doctor of the invisible. Because what interested me most about a patient was their experience as a subject. Sure, being able to know them objectively was often important ….. to be able to elicit the signs of disease in the body, or to measure the levels of certain molecules in their blood, or their organs etc. But I usually started by listening to their story.

As a patient told me their story, they told me of their experiences, of their symptoms, of events in their lives, of their thoughts, emotions and of what sense they were making of it all.

In doing so they revealed themselves as unique subjects. They revealed their personality, shared their innermost selves. They showed me what was invisible.

This getting to know the person who had the disease was a lot more important than getting to know just the disease. Important for diagnosis, for treatment and for healing.

It takes relationships, it takes connections, it takes interactions to reveal the invisible.

When the invisible becomes visible it’s always amazing, it’s always full of discovery and wonder, and it creates an invisible bond.

Isn’t that amazing? I think that’s what I experienced again and again in the consulting room. The creation of an invisible bond, a relationship, between two invisible subjects, the patient’s self and my self. That always felt special. That always felt like a gift.

I think we miss all that if we reduce people to objects and healing to procedures and processes. Human beings are more than that. What is invisible is essential.