This piece is an interpretation of an interpretation of an interpretation. The setting is a clinical encounter between a Spanish-speaking patient, an English-speaking doctor, and a Spanish medical interpreter on the inpatient psychiatric floor of a New York–area hospital. The typesetting is also an interpretation: the piece is written in three columns to evoke some of the questions surrounding the practice of medical interpretation as well as the interpretation of literature and lived experience. By framing the clinical encounter in such a way, I hope to show the connections between language, interpretation, and desire, as well as their disconnects. The piece also questions the uninterpretable and asks, particularly with respect to psychosis: what does it mean to be situated somewhere outside of the bounds of interpretation?
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
