{"title":"Shame, Guilt, and Medical Error in Ann Patchett's <i>State of Wonder</i>.","authors":"Luna Dolezal, Arthur Rose","doi":"10.1353/lm.2022.0030","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Medical error can be a devastating experience for medical practitioners who are often called the \"second victims\" of medical mistakes. The emotional toll medical error takes on doctors is not well understood, with few studies investigating shame and/or guilt in response to making mistakes. This essay considers how fiction and medical nonfiction might contribute to this understanding, by exploring the relation between shame, guilt, and medical error in Ann Patchett's novel <i>State of Wonder</i> (2011) alongside Danielle Ofri's autobiographical reflections in her essay, \"Ashamed to Admit It: Owning up to Medical Error,\" later reprinted as part of a chapter entitled \"Burning with Shame\" in <i>What Doctors Feel</i> (2013).</p>","PeriodicalId":44538,"journal":{"name":"LITERATURE AND MEDICINE","volume":"40 2","pages":"326-345"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7614404/pdf/","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"LITERATURE AND MEDICINE","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/lm.2022.0030","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Medical error can be a devastating experience for medical practitioners who are often called the "second victims" of medical mistakes. The emotional toll medical error takes on doctors is not well understood, with few studies investigating shame and/or guilt in response to making mistakes. This essay considers how fiction and medical nonfiction might contribute to this understanding, by exploring the relation between shame, guilt, and medical error in Ann Patchett's novel State of Wonder (2011) alongside Danielle Ofri's autobiographical reflections in her essay, "Ashamed to Admit It: Owning up to Medical Error," later reprinted as part of a chapter entitled "Burning with Shame" in What Doctors Feel (2013).
期刊介绍:
Literature and Medicine is a journal devoted to exploring interfaces between literary and medical knowledge and understanding. Issues of illness, health, medical science, violence, and the body are examined through literary and cultural texts. Our readership includes scholars of literature, history, and critical theory, as well as health professionals.