We're losing a ritual. We're losing a ritual that I believe is transformative, transcendent, and is at the heart of the patient-physician relationship.
Abraham VergheseRead
The flip side of suicide is that it leaves a lingering question in the minds of the people who survived. It's like a cancer that's metastasized. The suicide is the cancer and the metastasis is all these people saying, Why? Why? Why?
Interpretation
What this quote means
Suicide impacts not only the individual but also leaves lasting questions and suffering in those left behind.
This quote by Abraham Verghese highlights the profound impact of suicide on the loved ones of the deceased. It suggests that while the act may be seen as an escape for the individual, it leaves a trail of pain and confusion for survivors, who are left grappling with unanswered questions and emotional turmoil, much like the spread of cancer in the body, affecting many beyond the initial point of suffering.
Themes
SuicideImpactSufferingSurvivorsQuestionsPain
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a mental health awareness campaign to emphasize the broader effects of suicide.
More from Abraham Verghese
All quotes →I still find the best way to understand a hospitalized patient whose care I am taking over is not by staring at the computer screen but by going to see the patient; it's only at the bedside that I can figure out what is important.
Abraham VergheseRead
It was all I had, all I've ever had, the only currency, the only proof that I was alive. Memory.
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My VIP patients often regret so many things on their deathbeds. They regret the bitterness they'll leave in people's hearts. They realize the no money, no church service, no eulogy, no funeral procession no matter how elaborate, can remove the legacy of a mean spirit.
Abraham VergheseRead
You are an instrument of God. Don't leave the instrument sitting in its case, my son. Play! Leave no part of your instrument unexplored. Why settle for 'Three Blind Mice' when you can can play the 'Gloria'? No, not Bach's 'Gloria.' Yours! Your 'Gloria' lives within you. The greatest sin is not finding it, ignoring what God made possible in you.
Abraham VergheseRead
Students undergo a conversion in the third year of medical school - not pre-clinical to clinical, but pre-cynical to cynical.
Abraham VergheseRead
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