Foreignness in Medicine
When a “foreign” element is introduced into the medical context, it can challenge expectations, assumptions, and even procedures. That element can be a patient or doctor from another country or culture, a foreign language, or even a medical condition that is alien to traditional medical approaches. And for patients, of course, the very experience of being ill can be utterly foreign and destabilizing. This month’s issue explores what happens when these unfamiliar elements appear on the medical scene.