A New Issue of The New England Journal of Medicine is now avaialble.

October 25, 2012

The New England Journal of Medicine (Vol. 367 Number 17 October 25, 2012) is now available in print and online.

Of special interest is the article Talking with Patients about Dying by T.J. Smith and D.L. Longo

“Self-deception is a valuable personal coping tool. It allows us to aspire to significance, strive for new knowledge, and yearn to make a lasting contribution to the world despite the certainty of our inevitable end. Indeed, no arduous task would ever be undertaken if we were unable to exaggerate the benefits we expect from it and underestimate the difficulty of its accomplishment. Daniel Kahneman has called this the “planning fallacy,” our tendency to overestimate benefits and underestimate costs, and thus make foolish decisions to embark on risky pathways.”