There are at least two considerations here: the patient’s perception of a physician’s empathic expression and the physician’s level of comfort with expressing empathy and attending to patients’ emotions.

One way of transmitting culture is through narrative scripts—ideas about the kind of self one ought to become—that shape medical students’ ideas of what desires, attitudes, behaviors, and dispositions are expected or unbecoming of professionals.

My most important job is to help my patients (and their families) who are depressed, grieving, or angry following severe injury or illness to imagine possible narratives for the next chapter of life.

Dr Jonathan Treem joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article, coauthored with Drs Joel Yager and Jennifer L. Gaudiani: “A Life-Affirming Palliative Care Model for Severe and Enduring Anorexia Nervosa.”

Authentic partnerships with people with dementia motivate full social participation and resist fatalism around experiences of illness.

The eradication of hazing has not diminished the socialization, camaraderie, or commitment of new recruits. The physical, emotional, and mental demands of basic training suffice to produce the outcomes previously ascribed to hazing.

Arts participation can counterbalance the social stigma of Alzheimer’s disease by fostering the autonomy and creativity of those with the diagnosis.

Risks of off-label medication to treat aggression should be balanced with consequences of not responding to social factors.

Decision-making capacity can be preserved in patients with mental illness and should be formally assessed in the context of their values and past decisions.