Dr. Ellen Langer
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And the reason for that is that when you're told it's in remission, you're happier than it's active.
Exactly.
And so you're scared.
So it started for me, as most of my things in real life.
I go to visit my friend, my friend Eva.
She has a terrible case of cancer.
I go see her, and she had just come back from Mass General.
I said, how are you?
She said, her cancer's in remission.
And then a bell went off.
Wait a second.
If I took the exact same test, presumably they'd tell me I don't have cancer.
Why is it you have it in remission?
And so then I spent a lot of time thinking about, again, cancer.
things go from bad to better, but there's a better than better way that we keep overlooking.
And I likened it to a cold.
So you get a cold and then the cold is gone.
You don't say the cold is in remission.
And then when you get the next cold, it's seen as a brand new cold.
It's less scary because you beat all those that came before it.