The Mirror Box (A Doctor's Story)

Days before she planned to retire after decades as a doctor, Suzanne Koven broke her wrist. In the aftermath, she developed a strange complication: Koven’s right hand, which hadn’t been injured, became excruciatingly painful and was paralyzed. Even more disturbing, she lost any sense that her hand belonged to her. Patients with chronic pain and mind-body syndromes—mostly women—are often dismissed as anxious or hysterical. Koven had believed, irrationally, that as a doctor she was invulnerable to such conditions. But like any other patient, she had to make sense of her new and altered self. Her search took her from the writings of Audre Lorde to scientific journals, an acupuncturist’s table, and the case reports of a Civil War doctor. Weaving narrative, literature, neuroscience, and medical history, Koven explores how we can heal, even when medicine is unable to cure. At a time when trust in doctors is cratering and physician burnout is at an all-time high, The Mirror Box offers a hopeful meditation on science, healing, and our common humanity.