Letter to Sci Am, Aug 23
Dear Editor
Z Paige L’Erario, a transgender neurologist, is of the view—a pretty logical view—that a doctor’s empathy, or lack of, can significantly affect functional neurological disorders in patients (FND). No one wants to quarrel with this view. It is reasonable enough. A doctor’s empathy can help a lot in relieving a patient’s stress. I fully agree with Dr. L'Erario. What about me, though? As an English teacher I was taught that a pronoun should agree with the noun it stands for. Yet here I am, reading in Z Paige L'Erario’s profile (Sci Am, July/August 2023) that “they are a graduate student” at Fordham University); and suddenly what I have always believed to be a sacrosanct truth comes crushing down: a pronoun is suddenly free to agree or disagree with anything it wants! Just imagine my initial euphoria! But, worse, think of the profound feeling of regret and shame I almost immediately afterwards felt at having passed on a non-truth to thousands of students over the years. How will I ever cope with this awful sense of shame! The stress is already setting in. I feel it. This is now my FND. Will Z Paige L’Erario (and Sci Am) ever have enough empathy to relieve me of this terrible ailment?
No comments:
Post a Comment