Sublime

While he was dying of prostate cancer, Broyard wrote a memoir, Intoxicated by My Illness. In one table-turning chapter, “The Patient Examines the Doctor,” Broyard writes: What do I want in a doctor? I would say that I want one who is a close reader of illness and a good critic of medicine. [ . . . ] I see no reason or need for my doctor to love me—

Eventually I came to accept my depressive episodes as existential in nature—part of my being—to be endured and not inflicted on others.

First identified by the renowned psychoanalyst Isabel Menzies Lyth in 1960, depersonalization is manifested, in part, by the referencing of patients not by name but by disease.

You must lose the habit of carrying anxiety around. First, make the effort to go and see Alice.

Calm acceptance, despite delayed recovery, is your goal.