BJ Miller, a palliative care physician and co-founder of Mettle Health, shares his profound journey after a tragic incident left him disabled. He discusses viewing recovery as a creative act and how art transformed his understanding of disability. Miller emphasizes the importance of a compassionate approach in palliative care and reflects on the interplay between suffering and identity. His experiences with dying patients have reshaped his appreciation for life, highlighting the value of interdependence and community in navigating mortality.
Engaging with death fosters interdependence and shifts perspectives, promoting collaboration and alleviating the pressure of individual achievement.
Miller's journey through personal suffering has shaped his understanding of disability, emphasizing that it does not diminish one's worth in society.
Studying art history has transformed Miller's view on identity and disability, allowing him to see recovery as a creative and artistic endeavor.
Deep dives
The Life-Giving Truth of Interdependence
Addressing death reveals the profound truth of interdependence inherent in human existence. Rather than viewing ourselves as burdens, recognizing our need for each other fosters collaborative spirits and right-sizes our individual perspectives. This realization can shift the relentless drive for achievement into a sense of relief, alleviating the pressure to solve everything alone. Engaging with death can spark creativity and allow us to embrace life, which enhances our appreciation of existence, even amid loss.
Transformation Through Personal Experience
A near-death experience at 19 was pivotal in shaping a career in medicine and a deeper understanding of healthcare's limitations. Experiencing personal suffering allowed for a meaningful perspective on disability and humanity’s shared challenges. Through family experiences with disability, a foundational understanding of normalcy emerged—one that includes loss and resilience. This shaped a professional curiosity about the interplay between identity and disability, and ultimately led to the understanding that being disabled does not diminish one's worth.
The Role of Art in Recovery and Perspective
Studying art history provided transformative insights into the nature of identity and reality, particularly in relation to disability. The analysis of sculptures with missing limbs encouraged a playful reinterpretation of perceived loss, showcasing the beauty of individuality. This creative lens painted recovery not just as healing, but as an artistic endeavor rooted in perspective and perception. Emphasizing everyday aesthetics helped to redefine the understanding of normalcy, fostering a sense of creativity within the limitations imposed by disability.
The Importance of Language in Healthcare
Language wields substantial influence over how illness and death are perceived and experienced, shaping emotional responses and social dynamics. Adjusting the language used around difficult subjects can help establish a therapeutic rapport between patients and caregivers, allowing for more profound connections. This awareness of linguistic power emphasizes the necessity of careful communication, particularly in palliative care contexts. Words can either alienate or forge bonds, making it essential to align language with the emotional realities of patients and their families.
Creating Safe Spaces for Emotional Expression
Metal Health emerged from the need for safe spaces where individuals can confront their feelings surrounding illness and loss without the constraints of the medical model. Acknowledging that suffering related to illness often creates feelings of loneliness, the organization aims to normalize these experiences and encourage mutual support. By fostering a community of connection and understanding, the initiative seeks to depathologize suffering and create avenues for healing through shared narratives. This work highlights the essential human need for compassion and understanding in the face of life's challenges.
When BJ Miller was a sophomore in college, he climbed atop a commuter train and was immediately electrocuted, causing him to lose both legs and half an arm. In the aftermath of his own near-death experience, he turned to the arts to make sense of his injuries and to grapple with questions of disability and what it means to live a good life.
Miller is now a palliative care physician and the cofounder of Mettle Health, a multidisciplinary group providing support for people confronting illness, disability, and death. He previously served as the executive director of San Franciscos’s Zen Hospice Project and the founder of the Center for Living and Dying.
In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Miller to discuss how he’s come to view recovery as a creative act, how studying art history and architecture radically shifted how he thinks about disability, what he’s learned from Buddhist approaches to death, and how working with dying patients has changed the way he lives his own life.
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