English or perish
I’ve been working on suicide stories for some time – I wanted to write a book about them. Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen. Someone else wrote the book. But this is not a post about a book that will never be. It’s a post about writing in Polish (and other non-English languages).
Linguistics of evidence-based medicine
Over the last weeks I have heard the word ‘evidence’ in clinical contexts more often than I care to remember. I hated it every time, every time I felt it was meant to thwart whatever I said. And so it’s time for a linguist’s take on evidence-based medicine. Continue reading “Linguistics of evidence-based medicine”
Rules of reflection
The other day, I read a very moving account of a patient’s interactions with health professionals after being diagnosed with mesothelioma. The patient was Prof. Kieran Sweeney, a clinician, who later died of the illness. Here are my reflections on what he wrote. Continue reading “Rules of reflection”
Don’t speak ‘our language’
Over the last few weeks I have seen usual advice for healthcare professionals more often than normally. Doctors should speak the language which is understandable to their patient. Just like with ‘It’s OK to talk’, I dislike this kind of advice, I think it’s meaningless, pointless and patronising. And this is what I want to write about.