UNDER THE KNIFE:
The mystery world of the O.R. Again, the gripping jaws of the phobic's terror are evident, as are her/his thoughts of blood and injury, and the all-important scalpel dominates the frame. Literally under the knife.
TONSIL HARVEST:
For some, a childhood "rite of passage", albeit a scary one. A very old tonsillatome floats above the grisly scene; it is the same tool that is about to be used on the child. Luckily, such horrid tools are no longer in use. Of particular interest to me because, in a simailar fashion, I was separated from my tonsils many years ago.
CUTTING EDGE:
The cut has been made. Fear is dimmed or completely abolished by the anesthesia, but the gory reality is plain to see. This is the reality that the phobic can only imagine and dread; it need not be consciously experienced to be feared.
PULLING TEETH:
Dental phobia. Needles, blood, a terror-stricken stare and the tools of that trade. The x-ray is of a person with impacted wisdom teeth, the very same condition that led to mine being surgically removed when I was a teen. I never saw the pliers; I was fully under in a hospital O.R. A lucky break.
OPEN WIDE:
More dental (and needle) phobia. Who hasn't felt the anxiety (and often abject terror) at the thought of an impending novocaine injection in the mouth before a dental procedure?
FEAR IS A PREDATOR:
Quote: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." How true. This has even more relevance to the phobic. Do we fear the surgery, or the fear associated with the surgery? To be brought down by fear alone....
SHEEP'S CLOTHING:
What is felt, but not seen. Seen through a phobic's blood-red-colored glasses - the O.R. is awash in shadowy, ethereal hues, rivers of blood, the dedicated and caring surgical team becomes a pack of baleful beasts driven by bloodlust.
JUST A LITTLE STICK:
Needle phobia. Once, when an anesthesiologist went to start an IV on me before one of my surgeries, it was as if he came at me with a venomous viper, its dripping fangs bared to strike. Same fear, different situation.
TONSILLECTOMY:
The tools, the perception, the aftermath. For what is seen as a rather simple and (at one time) commonplace procedure, the equipment is certianly most horrific - tonsil guillotines and snares - words more reminiscent of an exececution than a surgery.
SYMBOLISM GUIDE:
The wolf: The face of terror, the fear the phobic experiences. I have chosen to use the historical symbolism of the wolf, not the benevolent, beautiful animal we know today, but what it represented for many centuries: evil, terror, death, fear, anything that was out to get someone, bloodlust. The face that replaces the humanity of the doctor and nurse, obscures rational thought with unrelenting dread. The phobic is so terrified that the doctor, despite his actions to the contrary, might as well have become a ravening beast of prey.
Sunrise/sunset: Rising: Creation, renewal, beginning. Setting: shutting down, fading away, closing. Alternately the brightness, heat of the sun: Fusion, alchemy.
Water/ocean/lakes: If red- blood. Otherwise, being overwhelmed, drowning, but also re-birth.
Clouds: Sleep, dreams, drug-induced stupor and amnesia, memories, the past.
Blurred imagery: The past, time distortion, slow motion, memory and imagination.
Colors: Greens, blues and any hues in between: stereotypical hospital colors
Red: blood, anxiety. Yellow: creation alternately pallor, illness, nausea
Fire: danger, or perceived danger
