5
‘‘They Treated Me as if I Were Dead’’
Peripheralization and Discrimination
‘‘When I came back to work, some colleagues wouldn’t even look at me,’’
Deborah, the psychiatrist with breast cancer, said, shaking her head in
dismay. ‘‘People passed me in the corridor as if I wasn’t there—as if I hadn’t
come back.’’ Ill physicians faced obstacles due not only to internal psy-
chological states, and interactions with providers, but also to relationships
with bosses and other staff at work. Colleagues had to decide how to act
toward sick doctors, and did so in a range of manners, approaching them
as either doctors or patients. Fellow physicians had to decide whether to
reduce the status and standing of these ill colleagues, and could support
or avoid them. In turn, these ill physicians’ senses of self were profoundly
shaped by perceptions of how others viewed them.
From Subtle to Overt: Types of Discrimination
Frequently, physician-patients faced and felt stigma and discrimination.
A few with treatable, nonstigmatized conditions faced little, if any, bias
against them, though at times even they encountered resentment from
colleagues. Harry, the war refugee with heart disease, did not think he had
confronted any stigma per se, but faced annoyance from colleagues who
had to cover his practice. He raised a question of what, exactly, consti-
tuted stigma.
Doctors who covered for me resented that they had to put in ex-
tra time. Was that stigma? No. It was part of their job, but still
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