The Divided Self in Medicine: Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, and the Hidden Wounds of Healing

In medicine, we’re trained to believe that composure equals competence; that, if we keep our heads down and our hearts guarded, we’ll stay strong. But the truth is, pretending we don’t feel doesn’t make us better healers. It makes us brittle.

The real work isn’t about suppressing our humanity; it’s about integrating it. Caring and not caring, presence and detachment; both have their place. What matters is that we hold them in tension, rather than letting one erase the other.

Wholeness in medicine isn’t moral compromise. It’s moral clarity and the courage to tell the truth about what this work costs and still choose to care within it.