Skip main navigation
Close Drawer MenuOpen Drawer Menu

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has updated its Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, including with new information specifically addressed to individuals in the European Economic Area. As described in the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, this website utilizes cookies, including for the purpose of offering an optimal online experience and services tailored to your preferences.

Please read the entire Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. By closing this message, browsing this website, continuing the navigation, or otherwise continuing to use the APA's websites, you confirm that you understand and accept the terms of the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, including the utilization of cookies.

×
Back to table of contents
Arts and CultureFull Access

The Malady The Doctor Missed

Published Online:1 Nov 2018https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp-rj.2018.131105

The psychiatrist
left her doctor's office
  invisible,
  voiceless.
Her cysteine blue eyes fell
  dusky,
  dewy,
  dolorous.

She couldn't imagine missing our
  graduations,
  marriages,
  careers,
  children.
At seventeen,
I couldn't imagine missing
  her.

Nestling beside her I said,
"On heaven or earth you will be there."
Knowing I feared losing her she lulled,
"You have nothing to be afraid of."

Years later,
  invisible,
  voiceless,
my cysteine blue eyes fell
  dusky,
  dewy,
  dolorous.

Remembering my mother,
I left my doctor's office
for a knowing
  look,
  touch,
  and
  word
that I learned
when nurtured over time
  could heal
the malady the doctor missed.

Lauren M. Weinand is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson.

The author thanks her late mother, Dr. Mary Ann Coady Weinand, and late friend, Meikil Addie Berry, for their profound love and formative mentorship in patient care.