Stuck in the hospital and feel like swearing at the doctor? Go ahead, it might make you feel better, a new study has clai-med. According to the study researchers at the Bellevue Hospital Centre in New York, swearing can provide an emotional catharsis and even a bonding opportunity between doctors and patients in hospitals. But, certain obscene language, especially ethnic or sexist slurs, is never a good idea, they cautioned.
“Swearing always has to be used very tactfully, because it is a very intense communication,” said study author Daniel Zimmerman, a psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital Centre. “It can easily scare or overwhelm,” Zimmerman was quoted as saying by LiveScience.
Zimmerman, who drew inspiration for this study from a psychiatric patient whose constant use of obscenities and ethnic slurs made treating him almost impossible for the hospital staff, said dirty language can sometimes hint at a patient’s diagnoses.
People with Tourette syndrome, for example, may swear involuntarily, and some types of brain damage can cause people to speak only in spontaneous utterances like curse words. For the study, published in the journal Psychosomatics, Zimmerman and his team drew on their own medical experience to collect case studies of hospital profanity.
They came up with eight vignettes, some fictionalised to combine elements of multiple case studies into one, each illustrating a different aspect of the use of dirty words.