Call Me Cassandra
Author: Avital O’Glasser, MD
Keywords: COVID19, pandemic, women in medicine, advocacy, education, moral injury
In the last 18 months of the COVID19 pandemic, I have felt like a Cassandra more and more frequently.
I have a soft spot for Greek mythology, and the less well-known character Cassandra has resonated with me for years. Who was she?
According to the myths, Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba and a Trojan priestess of Apollo who was cursed to utter true prophecies but to never be believed. Her resulting treatment is awful and dehumanizing—depending on the telling of the myth, she is viewed a a liar, an idiot, or mentally ill.
Just as we can thank Greek mythology for the Oedipus Complex, we also have the Cassandra Complex. As the centuries have progressed, “Cassandra” metaphorically or rhetorically began to refer to someone whose valid (and ultimately accurate) predictions and warnings are not believed and indeed outright dismissed. According to wikipedia, the Cassandra complex “is applied by some psychologists to individuals who experience physical and emotional suffering as a result of distressing personal perceptions, and who are disbelieved when they attempt to share the cause of their suffering with others.” The term has been applied to politics, climate change, and economics.
You see where I’m going with this one, right?
There have been multiple Cassandra pop culture references in recent years. In the 1995 film “Mighty Aphrodite”, actor Danielle Ferland has a small role Cassandra, delivering the lines “I see disaster. I see catastrophe” to the assembled Greek chorus. In the powerful novel about the women of the Trojan War, A Thousand Ships, Cassandra is viewed by her family as a blubbering, incomprehensible fool—but treated compassionately by the author because of the pain she experiences from the prophecies she receives and for the pain she experiences because she is never believed.
For the last 18 months, healthcare professions have been warning, begging, and pleading the public to take head. We’ve gone from being called heroes, to being ignored, to being yelled and screamed at for continuing to advocate for masks, vaccines, and physical distancing. Many have been on the receiving end of vitriol from sick and dying patients themselves, refusing to accept or believe that they themselves have COVID. Our moral injury is our Cassandra complex.
We are Cassandras.
“I’ve felt like a Cassandra for months”
“ ‘Just call me Cassandra,’ every front line covid provider and public health official”
“Cursed with the gift of “‘I told you so’ and ‘gosh you were rights’…”
According to the myths, Cassandra is ultimately deemed worthy of her dedication. To my fellow sister Cassandras—I HEAR you. I SEE you. I BELIEVE you. I know others do as well. Keep advocating and warning. We are not cursed to never be believed.
About the Author: Avital O’Glasser, MD, is a hospitalist at Oregon Health & Science University and the editor of the WIMS blog (Twitter: @aoglasser).