Teaching the art of acceptance and kindness, using empathy and generosity can be wonderfully helpful.
Raman was a brilliant student and the captain of his school’s football team, who was considered very promising by his coaches and peers alike. Football was not just a sport for him, but a passion. Wishing to make it to the top echelons of the game, he also tried out for some of the city’s biggest clubs and was initially considering their offer to play for their lower divisions. His family of modest background however was against his wishes and they motivated him to study hard and become a doctor. He worked diligently to make his dreams come true and cleared the medical entrance exam to ensure a coveted seat in a government medical college. Wishing everyone a happy ending! Although not to be. During his first year he missed classes, failed exams, missed assignments. After being repeatedly pulled up for his insolent and indifferent attitude towards this pious profession, he jumped in front of a moving train, ending his life.
Paritosh was the only son of a temple priest in a village in West Bengal, not far from the capital Kolkata. His family was poor and was completely dependent on his father’s meager earnings to survive with the fluctuating festive season. While attending a local government school where subjects were taught in Bengali, he had a stellar reputation as a “brain man” who was most likely to make it big in life. Hurt by the plight of his society, he was sold with the idea of becoming a doctor. And indeed, that day has come! The perennial Dalit had made it to the city’s medical college without any coaching or tuition, contrary to the prevailing norm in cities and towns. His family was overjoyed and he immediately became a local celebrity. It is believed, but fate had other ideas. Despite all odds, the village boy was walking shoulder to shoulder with the city mates who were much better off economically and socially. Also add the “disrespect” of not being so well versed in English, the language of the books and the curriculum. After a few instances of ridicule and ridicule for his monotonous and simple lifestyle, he started living aloof and retreated from his batch mates. She realized that a tremendous difference was separating her from the rest of her peers. The gap was getting wider and eventually it proved very difficult to bridge. He succumbed to constant bouts of isolation and loneliness, trying to blend into the crowd where he was from nowhere, an unknown thrust into the crowd of means and people standing. He hanged himself in his room one night in an attempt to escape the Great Partition.
life stories in context
These unfortunate events are not just sad anecdotes. These are real people and real life. It is a well-established fact that suicides among medical students and doctors are higher than in the general population. This defies the essential argument that people who are trained to have a strong sense of urgency to understand the distress and illnesses that plague their patients often fall prey to these themselves. The general discussion on this matter raises the growing issues of excessive stress, irritation, depression, insomnia, poor relationship with spouse/partners, drug use etc. These still remain widespread, persistent and widely urgent issues among the community. But there are other sinister themes going on here as well. Bullying, racism, favoritism, alienation, accusations of obsession, to name a few, are lurking behind a black screen of mental health issues. But these are an underestimated and inexhaustible source of a pervasive sense of despair and hopelessness. A cure can be discovered only by careful examination of the source.
So, what are our options to remove these dark clouds that are dangerously hovering over the medical fraternity or any rigid pedagogy bound institutions for that matter. Several measures and structures have been suggested and calculated which are not yet in motion. The importance and awareness of mental health issues, counseling and appropriate guidance, declension of medical curriculum, teaching better coping skills, to name a few, are some of the helpful and preventive strategies that come up in such discussions. The stigma of mental illness and the resulting paria-like treatment became even greater with such people, hence proving to be a hindrance among medical professionals. But even these comforting measures are far from being a comprehensive and holistic panacea for the weaknesses inherent in this unnecessarily ‘glory’ profession. Can we try to put some sense of art and philosophy, some use of drama and culture in these ‘doctor-making machinery’?
Teaching the art of acceptance and kindness, using empathy and generosity alone can be helpful where all else has failed. The synergy of the humanities with medical science can be a tool not only to overcome and treat the rigors of occupational hazards, but also to address the differences that separate one man from another, one doctor from another. We do. It may just be the soothing balm we need for the sadness, isolation and hysteria that is decimating this selfless profession. It is absolutely true that this deeper understanding of compassion and harmony through the teachings of the humanities can make our endurance more bearable.
(Dr Rai is a psychiatrist at AIIMS, Rishikesh and Dr Banerjee is a Consultant Geriatric Psychiatrist in Kolkata; views are personal and do not affect the authors’ institutions or employers; names changed for anonymity)