My background is that in January 2009 I had major neurological surgery. I was given a multi-bacterial, hospital borne post-operative infection which was badly diagnosed. Part of my face was eaten away by infection and my eye was also disfigured by errors during the surgery. The upshot is that I have been left grossly facially disfigured for life. The infection also utterly destroyed my hair. I was a very attractive woman before this was done to me. I have a number of complaints about the NHS doctors and nurses whom I have encountered, and it is not appropriate to air them here.
Amongst comments from inept medical "professionals" that have infuriated me have been "No you're not attractive any more and never will be again, but you should see it as an opportunity to develop another aspect of your personality" from a plain as a pikestaff registrar who resembled a giant poodle and unbelievably worked as a specialist in reconstructing damaged faces. And from the Lead Clinician plastic surgeon who had been partly responsible for this situation: "You WILL feel happier about you face......I have patients who look like you who are happy to be seen in public".Mostinfuriating of all "You mustn't be angry. It's very bad for you. Try being more positive."
In my view, directed anger is not unhealthy. Repressed anger is.
I have looked at a number of facial disfigurement websites and found them sadly lacking, and in particular loathe some of the suggested strategies for dealing with disfigurement. One of the more inept suggested that disfigured people subjected to unwanted, intrusive and sometimes abusive attention from strangers should see it as an overture to making a new friend. Now - who on earth would want friends like that!
Hence, seeking useful advice and do-it-yourself therapy,I have bought a number of medical books from Amazon.
I absolutely loved Ehrenreich's approach, which is based on her own experiences of being force-fed "positive thinking" clap-trap and a standard approach of treating a patient (in her case, a cancer patient) as a dim-witted pink-loving jerk. Well, let's face it, the only point of such control is to make the lives of the medical profession easier. I myself was a qualified lawyer before this illness was visited on me by NHS incompetence, and would never have suggested to my clients that they should be cheerful about their problems. It absolutely seems to be an approach only from the medical profession, and one cannot help but think its sole purpose is to make their lives easier. After all, it is always going to be easier in any profession to deal with some smiling nincompoop instead of someone who is asking relevant, educated questions that they are incapable of answering.
It was also interesting to see how the author ties this silly "be jolly and always think positive" into other dangerous waters, such as the fall of the economy.
