We entered a patient’s room on surgical rounds – Mr. Edwards was a 51-year-old male with a painful hernia. He required urgent surgery, but due to his complex surgical past, the surgery would not happen that day. Through clenched teeth, Mr. Edwards angrily responded, “I need this surgery today. Just get it done. This car is broken, and you’re a mechanic, so fix it.”
Even before my surgical rotation in medical school, I had heard intimidating stories about my attending, Dr. Erwin Hirsch. Peppering students with increasingly difficult questions, he would cause them to tremble and stammer, earning rounds with Dr. Hirsch the title of “Gorilla Rounds.” The Gorilla did not take pleasure in this torture, however – instead, he demanded greatness from his students out of compassion for his patients. Though even the steadiest and strongest of us can become rattled.
In the silence following Mr. Edwards’ response, we all turned towards Dr. Hirsch, who immediately earned his moniker. Stepping closer to the patient, his face now red, he boomed “I, sir, am NOT a mechanic. I am a thinking surgeon, who helps humans.” At the time, I thought Dr. Hirsch had a bruised ego – that he did not want to be compared to a blue-collar worker.
Nearly two decades later, I believe a different reason dictated his response. Dr. Hirsch had given the patient thought. He had carefully weighed the risks of surgery, and had compassionately decided that the patient’s life would be better if he did not immediately operate. Mr. Edwards had stripped him of that – of his passion, thought, and care. He had rid him of his humanity and reduced him to a robotic droid, whose function was to serve his interests, as Mr. Edwards saw them. It was enough to make the most compassionate physician lose his temper.
This has nothing to do with being a mechanic, as they, too, are thoughtful experts. If the patient had said “your job is to fix people, so fix me,” Dr. Hirsch would likely have responded similarly. Any of us, if stripped of what makes us human – the individual thought, the feelings, the previous experiences and expertise – will react similarly.
Yet we do it often. Liberal vs. conservative, foreign vs. domestic, religious vs. atheist, us vs. them – by labeling, we strip others of their essence – and that is of being an individual. And to rid another person of their individuality, to reduce their life story to a single word, is a crime: an offense that has led to the greatest crimes we have ever committed.
There is a step beyond thinking of yourself as x but tolerating y: not even to consider yourself an x. The more labels you have for yourself, the dumber they make you.
Paul Graham
