Medical dark humor
For medical students and residents, dark humor represents a major defense mechanism. I often tell the new students and residents – you cannot make up these stories. The stories are actually sad. The patients often have serious disease and complications.
But we do laugh and retell the stories. I will not give examples here, because without context they actually are not that funny.
I also tell the students and interns that the stories do not travel well outside the medical peer groups.
Over the past 44 years since I started my clinical rotations, I quickly learned that the stories belong within our peer group.
Some would argue that we should not laugh at patients, but sometimes the laughing prevents the crying. The humor represents a defense mechanism that is actually very important.
As we mature we understand things that our non-medical friends never really experience. We hear stories that we really could never make up. So we laugh so that we do not cry.
Source: DB's Medical Rants - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: rcentor Tags: Medical Rants Source Type: blogs