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: Tags: Medical Rants Source Type: blogs