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Bernard Siegel, MD
Woodbridge, Conn

JAMA. 1994;272(9):659.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—I am out of my mind over A Piece of My Mind.¹ Again and again, physicians are crying in deserted corners of the hospital.^1,2 Why is this happening?

The answer is our lack of training and the depersonalization that had become a part of medicine.

I, too, had to hurt and almost die inside before I began to treat people. We cried together, held each other, listened to one another, and I was even asked by my patients to deliver eulogies at their funerals. I spoke their words for them. They healed me. Please, fellow physicians, don't cry in empty rooms, on stairwells, or in locker rooms. Cry in public and let the patients and staff heal you and see you are human.

We wouldn't need to hide behind our masks if we weren't human and hurting. As a surgeon, I had to come out . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Footnotes
Edited by Drummond Rennie, MD, Deputy Editor (West), and Margaret A. Winker, MD, Senior Editor.

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