Adam Blatner

When I was little I was sickly and saw the doctor, it seemed, a lot. When I saw this peanuts cartoon I was strangely touched. I don’t remember hollering like this, but I sure do remember asking a lot of questions. It occurs to me that I wasn’t able to keep the anxiety hidden all that well.

The weird thing is that I converted this into a desire to become a doctor and help other kids, and that is indeed what I did. “We just shot the measles” somehow reflects the transformation that I was able to effect. In psychoanalysis it’s called “identifying with the aggressor, but I don’t like those words. Identifying with the helper seems more like it.