ABSTRACT
A young married woman, complaining of lower abdominal pain, walks into the doctor’s consulting room accompanied by her mother-in-law and husband. The doctor, who is male, asks her questions to ascertain her medical history. A student, intern or resident doctor, who probably came into the profession with idealistic dreams, becomes completely mechanised, with outpatient departments and ward rounds degenerating into a painful chore rather than the deep and intense learning processes that they can be. Fearing that expressing feelings is a sign of weakness and even incompetence as a doctor, as a survival strategy doctors become mechanical in their interactions with patients. Patients come to doctors at a time of great vulnerability and often trust the doctor to fix their illness—to save them, in fact. To deal with this responsibility sensitively, a doctor needs skills beyond what is currently taught in the standard medical curriculum.
