Game of Approximation

Dr. Austin Lam, UBC Psychiatry Research Track PGY-2

A poetic reflection on Gadamer’s ‘fusion of horizons’ in psychiatry.

Seated across in opposition

Shining forehead of the Other

Alien – Alienist.

Throw with might

Grappling hook

Fastened and burrowed

Into the Other.

Liliputian figure

Scaling the heights

Face of their Face

Entering doors of perception.

Pupil’s cavern of light

Engulfs the One

Who stands in awe

Dropped within.

Vast interior

Of the Other – Realizing

Merged, Möbius strip of

Exteriority and interiority.

Ever closer Understanding

Only approximated

“In the final analysis,” with

Teasing distance.

Withholding certitude …