When Breath Becomes Air
The Art & Science of Medicine
Inspired by neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi’s autobiography, we explored the internal state of a doctor who has transitioned to a patient, following a diagnosis.
We used the motif of a mirror to represent the complexities of coming to terms with professional identity disruption.
We used the motif of a mirror to represent the complexities of coming to terms with professional identity disruption.
Danielle Anderson, Elizabeth Birkbeck, Hannah Compton, Alexander Corbett, Freya Fagan-Bird, Lauren Garratt, Orla Hanks, Harry Hudson, Roseanne Ismail, Harriet Lawson.
Collaborative Creative Pieces, Year One
Exhibited at the Foundations of Medicine Conference, November 2017
Exhibited at the Foundations of Medicine Conference, November 2017
I think this piece is very clever and relevant to what we have been studying recently about how important it is that we maintain our own wellbeing as well as our patient’s. In our second week I heard the phrase “doctor treat thy self” which I found very thought provoking, as it made me consider how hard it must be for doctors to ask for help, as there is a constant pressure upon them from the public to know all conditions and how to prevent them. I particularly like the little details in the image such as the graph and spilt coffee all contributing to the idea of decline.
I really like the representation here of the doctor also being a patient. I think when people take on the role of being a doctor, they forget the vulnerability and feeling of what it’s like to be a patient as they are rarely able assume the patient’s role anymore. It is a simple yet very effective piece of art to show how doctors are also humans that are able get sick.
I think this piece is incredible, as is manages to capture the slightly unknown struggle o a doctor. Sometimes they fall so deeply into the role of the doctor that they lose themselves and become vulnerable enough that they make themselves the patient. The sense of role reversal here is very strong and is captured beautifully.
I think this piece of art is very emotive and made me think deeply about how different one’s perspective of being a patient can be. Unless you see yourself in a patient’s shoes and take in their health as a whole, you can’t begin to imagine how they might really feel.
I think this piece of art is thought-provoking and captures the struggles of a doctor by contradicting the ‘professional role’ that doctors are labeled with. It is essential that doctors can look after themselves and be able to undertake a ‘patient’ role. The subjective nature of the definition of health is displayed in this drawing – how a doctor may not interpret themselves as ill when others would.
This is an incredibly insightful piece of art that both beautifully and truly emulates the inner struggle and shock a doctor who has now become a patient is facing. From the utilisation of mirrors, its portraying a window into the soul of a doctor. The mirrors give a glimpse of how the doctor hasn’t given up on his former identity and is not embracing the help he both deserves and needs. This can relate to the societal standard to which a doctor is burdened by and how this sense of role reversal that’s portrays a vulnerability in doctors that we do not always see.
Having read the book, I think this piece of artwork sums up the critical message for doctors and future doctors in it, namely that as a doctor you shouldn’t forget the vulnerability and pain that all your patients have, even if as a doctor you may feel like that would never apply to you personally. This leads to the message of a greater importance on holistic and empathetic treatment of patients, treating them as complex humans rather than attempting to treat them as simply carriers of diseases and conditions, whilst also leading to the message that doctors have to take care of themselves in order for patient care to be as effective as possible, as doctors aren’t above healthcare problems just because they know what the causes or symptoms are, and in fact this knowledge actually often proves detrimental to doctors in maintaining their own health (ie the hypocrisy of recommending patient’s health actions that they themselves don’t do like sleeping for sufficient time). Hence, I think this piece of art has very strong and useful messages, and therefore is very good.
This piece caught my eye due to this transition of a doctor becoming a patient. Doctors are viewed, by the general public and possibly by themselves, as perfect role models that are immune to mistakes or illnesses. I appreciate the quotes on the wall, such as ‘doctors, it turns out, need hope too’. Doctors may feel hopeless when they are unwell because they can’t keep themselves healthy, even though it is their job to ensure their patients are as healthy as possible. The representation of the doctor seeing a reflection of themselves in a mirror can be interpreted as reflecting on the time that the patient was a doctor or caring for oneself. The decreasing graph and the spilt drink, portray a decline in health and loss of control.
This art piece caught my eye because the conflict faced by a doctor when becoming a patient in this piece is fascinating. This piece highlights the importance of wellbeing and encourages doctors to seek help if they are struggling and to trust others to help them. As intended, the use of the mirror in the art clearly depicts the identity disruption. In the first art piece, the individual is looking in the mirror as a doctor and in the reflection, he is a patient. For the second picture, the opposite is true. However, in both, the doctor appears to be treating the patient, which I believe is due to them thinking they have the knowledge and expertise to treat themselves, and because they believe that having an illness is a bad reflection on them as a doctor. Therefore, perhaps they are hesitant to consult their colleagues regarding the illness and self-diagnose instead which leads to the deterioration of their health shown by the downward trend of the graph, and the stress and anxiety the doctor feels in this situation is represented by the spilled drink. I think the second piece shows the tendency of a doctor to try and second guess the treatment they are receiving by continuing to examine themselves while they are under care.
This art piece really intrigued me because it represented the doctor as falling into the idea of being a patient and how they feel being on the other side of the coin. The use of grayscale showed me the idea of a loss of character and a lot of personality as the doctor fell into the role of the patient (which is something that they could not help ). I also really appreciated the idea of looking into a mirror and not seeing what you thought you would see as it shows me the importance of perspective in medicine and ensuring that we treat doctors and patients alike as human beings and remove the hierarchy involved in clinical delivery of healthcare.
This piece manages to breach a certain barrier between doctor and patient, showing that doctors have a vulnerable side too. It disputes one of the key roles of a doctor – helping patients – as it places the doctor on the other side of the table. The doctor’s vulnerability is captured by the mirror showing them as the professional one on side and the patient on the other. The idea that the doctor is treating himself might suggest that they believe they possess the capacity to treat themselves as they might think that illness is a weakness on their behalf – as a doctor, they might believe that they shouldn’t become weak but should be treating other who are. They might be fearful that it is a bad reflection on their part and so might be anxious to consult other doctors, and this might be detrimental to their mental health, symbolised by the spilled coffee cup and the decreasing graph on the screen. This might lead the doctor down a slippery slope. Having read the book, I believe that this artwork encapsulates the idea that doctors shouldn’t solely be considered as people who treat the conditions of other humans but as humans themselves.
Having read the book, this is a really interesting concept to get to visualise. It demonstrates well the fragility that you face as a doctor when you are losing control physically. Doctors, who are normally in the role of the caregiver are taught many things but not how to transition to that of a patient or be able to set aside this role when needing to be cared for by others. Having the knowledge to understand what is going on but not the power to physically stop it is difficult and this desperation is emphasised by the grey colours as he is quite literally stripped of colour or what was giving him purpose. It further brings into question how the dynamic would change in a doctor patient rapport since it would be challenging for the doctor to let go of something that is key to their identity when receiving treatment.
This piece stands out to me, not for the way it is presented but for what it symbolises. I remember reading ”When breath becomes air” vividly, and how it captured the sheer emotions that Paul and his family went through. It shows the physical decline of someone who normally would be seen as the caregiver, them needing to break down their barriers and open up rather than being there for others to open up to them. This physical decline is shown through the use of the mirror in the piece, especially in the second picture where both faces (the patient and doctor) are obstructed, which could be seen as the person dealing with being lost in a professional sense. This might be because their job, being a surgeon in Paul’s case, was heavily linked to his identity as a whole and without this, the person may feel unlike themselves. I also believe that directly this could be linked to mental health and the stigma that doctors face around this. Them needing, to be 100% all the time and never showing a weakness, where that is humanly not possible and in reality, it is ok to not be ok. This is a stigma that is slowly being broken down but even now from the doctors and medical students I have spoken to many of them rarely stop, they just keep pushing, which of course is needed in a profession like this, but at what point do we stop and think that taking a pause from everything may be more beneficial than keeping going. Overall this piece is a good reflection of Paul Kalanithi’s book, as it shows us that there is more to life than just medicine, which for a doctor can take over them completely.
A well captured summary of a very difficult topic. The concept of coming to terms with ones new position and life circumstances being displayed as looking in a mirror is clever, it almost is shown to force this person to confront their new reality which they are in. The two pictures together show the perspective of one person in two drastically situations. This to me helps to emphisise how as a terminally ill patient in this scenario, the idea of what they were wokring towards in medicine and their future aspirations become so distant as to be seperate from their identity.
This piece shows the 2 sides of medicine, the one of the patient and the one of the doctor, very well. There are many shared aspects in these two perspectives. Firstly, both the desk of the doctor and bed of the patient are untidy and unkept; this shows that both the patient and doctor are solely focused on fighting the disease and not the surrounding environment. Secondly, both the patient and docotr are attached to a medical related item – the doctor to a stethoscope and the patient to a drip – symbolising that they are atone with medicine. It is an interesting choice not to use any colour as this could show the bleakness of a terminal diagnosis. It is also interesting to see both the patient and doctor in standardised clothes; this strips them of their personality and shows that their disease/ profession has taken over their lives
This is an incredibly meaningful piece and one that represents well what was presented in Kalanithi’s book. The first image is especially striking to me, observing his face in the mirror and the droop of the face as if he has lost all will, he has accepted that he is now the patient and will struggle to return to his former love again. His eyes also carry a haunted look about them that carries a whole new meaning as they are the reflection of himself. I think the choice of background is clever as well, the change in scenario as he makes his transition from surgeon to patient, starting in his own office and then transforming into a hospital bed where he has a lack of control; something that must be difficult to accept as a Doctor as you will have your own personal opinions about your condition and treatment, but have to accept that those treating you may be clearer of mind and knowledge.
Really moving way to show how Doctors are human too and are also sometimes patients themselves. The pictures remind me of the saying , ‘please put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others’ highlighting the issue in which doctors can sometimes let their own health slip in favour of prioritising the health of their patients instead of insuring that they are first healthy so that they can provide the best care. We can see on the desk and around the room that all the graphs are on a down ward trajectory, the coffee has spilled, the time is running down in the sand dial, to me this signifies the culture and pressure on doctors to keep carrying on no matter their emotions and health, to ignore and bottle all the warning signs that are showing.
A doctor becoming a patient is a huge transition, and this inversion of roles can force a doctor to learn from this identity shift what it’s like feeling vulnerable and out of control. This drawing stands out as it depicts this adjustment and encourages medics to reflect on what this experience is like.
This piece shows a sometimes disorienting change to this person’s role from a doctor to a patient. The doctor may be feeling quite unfamiliar with not having a strong sense of control over his condition and life. It reminds me of how different it must feel to go through the healthcare system as a doctor compared to a patient. As doctors, though we need to empathise with patients, we are often forced to be relatively removed from the patient so as not to let emotions affect our work, such as when making rationing decisions. This reminds me of how helpless it may feel as patients when we are on the other side. It makes me think about how difficult some decisions are to make, and to always be considerate of the patient’s perspective.
This piece depicts the uncomfortable nature of a doctor having to give up his control to become a patient in a time of need. This change of roles will mean the doctor can emphasise with what it feels like to be vulnerable and not in control. I think the coffee spilt on the table also shows this idea of letting things slip and losing control; as well as how all the graphs are pointing downwards conveying his worsening condition. I think this piece is very emotive.
I read the book and was very interested in the transition from being a great doctor to becoming a patient and feeling weak. The art shows the transition from organized and full of energy to messy and tired, feeling like a shadow of your former self, the once renowned and strong doctor.
The title of this piece is what initially drew me to the piece as I have read the book ‘when becomes air’ and it was so touching that I even wrote about it in my personal statement – it gives a unique outlook on the doctor-patient relationship and the difficulties of transitioning from Doctor to patient. Dr Kalanithi’s memoirs left me with a powerful message – what it truly means to have empathy for others as despite battling cancer himself, he continued to treat patients. The piece beautifully conveys the messages as it highlights the conflict between the doctor as a patient looking at themselves through the mirror whilst also showing that it is possible to still be a doctor despite also being a patient, just like Dr Kalanithi. The fact that the doctor is listening to his own heart suggests that since he is a doctor he may be expected to have a greater involvement in his own care rather than just taking the patient role – this can be seen in instances where doctors are expected to read and interpret their own test results for example rather than having it explained to them like any other patient would – I think the book mentions how Dr Kalinithi examined his first chest x-ray. Whether this is expected behaviour or the doctor wants to be involved clinically, it can make the transition between doctor and patient more difficult for them. The grey tones give the piece quite a sombre tone overall – highlighting how upsetting it can be in many ways when the doctor becomes the patient – for themselves, their families, their colleagues and those treating them who would relate to the patient sat in front of them as fellow medical professionals.
This piece stood out to me for a number of reasons. I have read the book, and something which particularly struck me as intriguing was how the author was interested in both science and the humanities, graduating in English Literature and Biology. The book beautifully demonstrates how the two are related, in the art of medicine, as well as discussing the difficulties Kalanithi experienced when facing the prospect of his own mortality. This piece conveys the idea of a doctor becoming a patient exceptionally well. The mirror motif illustrates how a doctor may struggle to perceive themself as a patient; doctors are so used to treating other people that coming to terms with their own diagnosis can be hard. The piece also evokes a strong sense of time pressure. This is shown by the sand timers and the graphs in the background of the first image, some of which could be considered to be Kaplan-Meier survival curves, in this case, showing a poor prognosis. Kalanithi talks of these in his book, as he asks for a survival estimate when diagnosed with cancer. The combination of the relative simplicity of this piece, as well as some striking details such as the monotone used and the sharp contrast in settings between the two images make it an excellent piece.
This piece demonstrates the poignant dichotomy of the physician and the ill. Those being two distinct roles that can transition from one another. The role of the physician does not guarantee immunity from illness and the piece highlights the resistance the doctor shows in accepting this transition. They will still want to treat and interpret illness and find letting go of that role indicates a loss of identity and proposes all their vulnerabilities they’ve neglected for how many years.