O’Keane’s attention is trained on her patients’ experiences, not their symptoms, and not on philosophical debates over personhood. For her focus, there is yet something peculiar, and oddly admirable, about how unsatisfying many of these case studies remain. She will share stories from her practice, but she is reluctant to feed a voyeuristic impulse, reluctant to entertain. She often writes about patients she could not help or ones she stopped hearing from, those for whom she could offer only witness. She quotes Marai: “Gradually we understand the world and then we die.” To her surprise, the richness of the natural world keeps imposing itself — recall that vivid little robin.

Source: New York Times June 01, 2021 19:07 UTC