title: Uncertainty by choice: anesthesia and the children of night.
abstract: Anesthesiologists sometimes have difficulty discussing uncertainties with patients. The widespread and deeply visceral uncertainty about sleep, dreams, and death--the daily terrain of the anesthesiologist--has its roots in the classical representations of these states as siblings, the children of the goddess Night. The symbolism of mythology can guide the practitioner by recognizing, through allegory, the range of our own and our patients' fears.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesia, Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Holzman
mesh_terms: D000758:Anesthesia / Q000523:psychology*; D000776:Anesthesiology; D003643:Death; D004324:Drama / Q000266:history; D004325:Dreams; D000076145:Greece, Ancient; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D008513:Medicine in Literature; D009229:Mythology; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011037:Poetry as Topic / Q000266:history; D012890:Sleep