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Believing is seeing

2002; Royal College of Physicians; Volume: 2; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.7861/clinmedicine.2-6-571

1473-4893

Deborah Padfield,

Digital Imaging in Medicine

Deborah Padfield worked on ideas for images which Deborah photographed, either solely or with their assistance. The resultant images were reviewed in further sessions. The images that best expressed their experience were chosen by the subjects and the process reiterated until they were happy that the image ‘said something’ to them in terms of expressing what their pain felt like. They then had the opportunity of showing me the final images and discussing the result. I had at some point in the planning stage thought that the process may open diagnostic avenues, but I rapidly came to realise that this was a minor and temporary atavistic aberration of Cartesian thinking: Virchow has little place in chronic pain management. Here diagnosis is not the only end point. Listening and acknowledgement are fundamental. To paraphrase John Major: perhaps there are times when we need to understand less and accept more. The resultant images are extraordinary, moving and provocative. One fundamental question – could an artist develop images that had a meaning for the sufferer – was answered early on: some subjects still report a quickening of the pulse when they see ‘their’ images. The resultant exhibition, shown at St Thomas’ and Guy’s throughout May and June and followed by a stretch at the Royal College of Physicians, reaffirmed the effect that these remarkable images have on the interested bystander. The feedback has been uniformly positive, not in terms of the beauty of the images, although many do have a strange aesthetic quality; but in their impact. We will long remember the medical student who wrote ‘Thank you. I will now see chronic pain in a different light.’ For me the crucial aspect is the transference of the reality of experience. The sufferer stands brazen in front of an image of their disquiet one metre high. We cannot ignore it or walk away, it has gained a reality that has to be faced. Our confusion may remain but it is the subject who now has the strength and certainty. It is the physician who has to accept the premise, process the implications and respond. We have to take the representation as we find it; we can no longer disbelieve. It is humbling.