[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-142167-105":59,"doc-detail-142167-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","the-neurologists-dragon-storytelling-tool","The Neurologist’s Dragon - storytelling tool","","“The Neurologist’s Dragon” explores how a clinician’s “dragon” metaphor—used to refer to a “difficult” patient—signals deeper dynamics of uncertainty, trust, and bias in clinical relationships. The essay traces dragons as cultural foils across literature, then applies that tradition to neurology rounds where functional and complex conditions create informational gaps. It argues that labeling patients reshapes narratives, erodes trust, intensifies countertransference, and can undermine therapeutic alliances, especially when clinicians feel stressed or the patient is a gender or racial minority.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-neurologists-dragon-storytelling-tool/142167/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-neurologists-dragon-storytelling-tool/142167.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"WPS_1786070896","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-17","2026-08-25",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":52},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What does the “neurologist’s dragon” metaphor refer to in the essay?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It refers to the way clinicians used the term “dragons” to characterize a patient labeled “difficult,” reflecting more than literal behavior—an emotional and symbolic narrative tied to uncertainty and relational strain.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Why does the essay connect dragons in literature to clinical practice?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It uses the long history of dragons as personifications of invisible enemies to frame clinical uncertainty as the underlying force clinicians respond to when symptoms resist clear organic explanations.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does the label “difficult patient” affect trust in the therapeutic relationship?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Once trust erodes, the patient’s experiences are dismissed or minimized, undermining credibility. The patient’s trust in the physician decreases, and the therapeutic relationship can disintegrate.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},142167,1787676161,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":52,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":24,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":143,"preview_page_count":4},549768072016,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","The Neurologist’s Dragon  \nSleek dragon of spite, and soars by night Ensheathed in flame; him the land-folk Do sorely dread.  \nUnknown author, Beowulf, c. 700  \nHis body monstrous, horrible, and vast,  \nWhich to increase his wondrous greatnesse more, Was swolne with wrath, and poyson, and with bloudy gore…  \nThat sight thereof bred cold congealed feare.  \nEdmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, 1596  \n“So, how are the Dragons doing?” This quote will remain with me for a long time. It was asked verbatim by an attending physician at the start of morning rounds during my third-year neurology rotation. The cryptic message was clear to all in the room. The physician devised the term by slightly changing the name of a patient who had been considered “difficult” by many on the team – so the beastly reference had obvious symbolism. The plural form,“dragons”, was a jab at the patient’s use of they/them pronouns. 1 This patient had an extensive past medical and psychiatric history and was admitted for an exacerbation of an already established neurologic problem. The team recurrently discussed the veracity of their signs and symptoms, considered the possibility of functional and factitious disorders, and had a rocky relationship with them and their family members.  \nFor months I spun this dragon quote in my mind. The dragon metaphor was egregiously insensitive but also spoke to something uncomfortably true. It seems more offensive to call someone a dragon rather than, say, a crocodile. It’s a more loaded concept. Whatever is loaded in the dragon metaphor (beyond insult) hints at something under the surface of that neurology team’s relationship with that patient – a phenomenon that by no means is limited to this clinical case.  \n1 I was stunned in that moment because I am transgender/non-binary. At the time I was starting to introduce my preference for they/them pronouns in certain settings but hadn’t done so with that clinical team.  \nDragons are ubiquitous these days: from The Hobbit to Harry Potter to Game of Thrones, they have a stronghold in our culture. But dragon tales are nothing new—there is a long history of dragons in literature.2 In western literature, they have almost always served as foils for heroes. In Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, written from the vantage of the Roman Empire around AD 70, the dragon was characteristic ofwhat he saw to be the foreignness and chaos of distant “uncivilized” lands. Conquest of dragons symbolized Rome’s ability to “civilize” other cultures. Throughout the coming centuries, dragons came to be terrifying, imposing personifications of invisible enemies: from the Abrahamic serpent in the Garden of Eden, an allegory of Satan; to Beowulf’s dragon, a treasure-hoarding personification of that society’s disdain for centralized wealth; to the water-spewing dragons of east Asia, personifications of a fear of drought.  \nSo, what about the neurologist’s dragon metaphor? It was a storytelling tool. Joan Didion famously wrote that “we tell ourselves stories in order to live.” This is true as we navigate clinical work, making sense of our patients’ illnesses and our place in the daily workings of medicine. During rounds we share clinical information in the form of stories: history of symptoms, hospital course, and so on. In hospital discourse we also, however, may include first-person narratives: the development of countertransference3, a dramatic interplay with patients/families/hospital staff, or a reflection from previous experience. The neurologist’s dragon reference illustrated the emotional undercurrent of that clinical scenario. One might conclude that it represented the “heroic” physician up against the“antagonistic” patient, but I think this is too simplistic. Considering the history of dragon metaphors, we can analyze further: the metaphor speaks to how clinicians may feel about the uncertainty of functional and other similarly complex disorders, the struggle of caring for “difficult” patients, and ","cbCaill9RqePxR0q","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaill9RqePxR0q","pdf",172246,"English","# The Neurologist’s Dragon\n## The origin of the dragon quote in clinical rounds\n## Dragons in literature as symbols of unseen enemies\n## Stories as a tool for living in medicine\n## Uncertainty, trust, and the erosion of therapeutic relationships\n## The “difficult patient” as a narrative label","[{\"question\":\"What does the “neurologist’s dragon” metaphor refer to in the essay?\",\"answer\":\"It refers to the way clinicians used the term “dragons” to characterize a patient labeled “difficult,” reflecting more than literal behavior—an emotional and symbolic narrative tied to uncertainty and relational strain.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the essay connect dragons in literature to clinical practice?\",\"answer\":\"It uses the long history of dragons as personifications of invisible enemies to frame clinical uncertainty as the underlying force clinicians respond to when symptoms resist clear organic explanations.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the label “difficult patient” affect trust in the therapeutic relationship?\",\"answer\":\"Once trust erodes, the patient’s experiences are dismissed or minimized, undermining credibility. The patient’s trust in the physician decreases, and the therapeutic relationship can disintegrate.\"}]","The Neurologist’s Dragon - storytelling tool | PDF",13]