Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
There is nothing to separate the beds, no curtain on runners that you pull when you want
to wall off your little corner of the universe, like when the doctor comes to examine you.
It takes a while to get used to this if you've ever been hospitalized in the States. Here, in-
cisions are cleansed, catheters are checked, accidents are cleaned up, and it's all just how
it is and nobody blinks. It has helped me understand why the English word, “privacy” be-
came part of the Italian language. One suspects there never was a native term for the phe-
nomenon.
On my second day in the hospital I learn how to say “transesophageal echocardiogram” in
Italian. “Ecocardiogramma transesofageo” is an even more merciless tongue twister than
itsAmerican cousin.Sayingitthree times fastisonlyslightly less difficult thanswallowing
the tube that gets passed down your throat to get up close pictures of your heart in action.
As they are getting ready to do the procedure, one of the technicians hunts for a VHS tape
in a drawer and asks a colleague if he knows how much room is left on this tape and what
else might be on it. Unsure, they break out a brand new one. They also mention anoth-
er machine that now uses DVDs and enter into a discussion about the difference between
DVD-RandDVD-RWandwhethertheycoulduseeitherone.Ijumpintogivemyopinion,
somewhat astonished at this backstage conversation that they're having in front of me. As
we get on with the show, I listen to comments among the attending doctors and technicians
about torn cords and patches of “vegetation.” I learn shortly afterwards that the procedure
has confirmed the diagnosis of endocarditis.
During the procedure I'm struck by how casually the doctors and technicians relate to one
another as they're getting ready, and how freely they chat in front of me about what they
are seeing on the screen. There's absolutely no effort to mystify the proceedings. The doc-
tor/patient relationship has little in common with the American paradigm.
***
My favorite sociologist back in the sixties when I was at Brandeis was a quirky fellow
named Erving Goffman. His classic was a book titled
The Presentation of Self in Everyday
Life.
He had an extraordinary eye for revealing the invisible ground-rules that organize so-
cial performance in public spaces. One example will suffice: he came to deliver a public
lecture at Brandeis about his ongoing research. At some point we all took a break; then,
after ten minutes he continued where he had left off. As he began to lecture, you couldn't
help but notice that he had accidentally left his fly unzipped and a bit of a shirtsleeve was
popping through. He continued blithely discussing the extraordinary power of social rules
and eventually came around to the matter at hand. He asked us to consider that in a group
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