Every now and then there's a scandal where doctors are caught saying mean shit about a patient, behind closed doors or during surgery. (As if surgical awareness

Every now and then there's a scandal where doctors are caught saying mean shit about a patient, behind closed doors or during surgery. (As if surgical awareness wasn't horrible enough.) There's always a lot of talk about whether such heartless people can be trusted to do their best and not cut corners. Something I heard years ago, and have never heard mentioned since, is that doctors are trained to do that, to talk shit about their patients in private, to give them emotional distance. If they let themselves care deeply about every suffering, dying person, they'd crack under the stress.