On Medicine and Boundaries: Frost's Mending Wall.

Abstract

Published just over a century ago, Robert Frost's Mending Wall stands as one of the most eloquent meditations on boundaries and the complex and nuanced role they play in interpersonal relationships. Often anthologized, and perhaps as often misunderstood, Mending Wall has much to teach medical educators and practicing clinicians about the physician-patient relationship and the evolving dynamic between healer and patient. Remembered mostly for the seemingly contradictory repetition of the adage "Good fences make good neighbors," and the opening "something there is that doesn't love a wall," Frost mischievously navigates through the many meanings and functions of boundaries; how they separate, unite, and ultimately, how they might mend. Mending Wall offers physicians an opportunity to look closely at the barriers and thresholds prevalent in medicine and explore how they both preclude and allow for intimate and healing relationships.