tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post7136231903325801853..comments2024-03-16T00:21:43.240+00:00Comments on Separated by a Common Language: How are you feeling in yourself?lynneguisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-62089538657210557052023-07-11T03:39:21.259+01:002023-07-11T03:39:21.259+01:00Apparently, if you wanna go Australian, you could ...Apparently, if you wanna go Australian, you could reply "I'm real crook, Doc!" (Crook meaning sick, apparently.) It's sort of a running joke in the Australian webcomic Doc Rat.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-19671004452129054372022-09-09T12:30:37.434+01:002022-09-09T12:30:37.434+01:00Yeah I get this question all the time by nurses an...Yeah I get this question all the time by nurses and doctors and don't know what they're asking. But last week I went in for a tetanus shot and the nurse asked me how I felt in myself. Upon further conversation, what she actually wanted to know was if I'd brought any Covid symptoms into the surgery. So I do think it is a way to distinguish why you're at the surgery today vs general health. I don't think they realise* I could answer how I'm feeling physically, mentally, emotionally, energetically, existentially or horoscopically. There is not just one "self feeling".<br /><br />*AmE speaker but have had to write documents in UK long enough to have changed most of my spellings.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-63295053383379590862020-09-21T00:38:44.606+01:002020-09-21T00:38:44.606+01:00AmE, only ever heard this from a doctor in Boston ...AmE, only ever heard this from a doctor in Boston in the late 1980s. Going by a dim memory of his voice, he was British!ktsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-3830575612405162452020-09-16T17:18:56.064+01:002020-09-16T17:18:56.064+01:00Reviving this discussion three years later...I'...Reviving this discussion three years later...I'm AmE but living in London for the past several years...but I can confirm that this is still very much in use in London among medical and lay people. I started to hear it a lot after my daughter was born two years ago. If she had symptoms of something, I might be asked "does she seem to feel well in herself?" or another young parent might say "he has a stuffy nose, but seems to be well in himself". It seems to differentiate between a local complaint as highlighted above and say something more serious where a child is lethargic, not eating well etc. "Feeling well in yourself" is basically the opposite of "feeling under the weather", which I think is a more AmE phrase.ElviraMadiganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00276543797346120952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-81640185387436609472017-05-10T08:44:28.258+01:002017-05-10T08:44:28.258+01:00I have heard older generations of BrE speakers use...I have heard older generations of BrE speakers use this phrase. I asked my 85 year old father how he was feeling just this morning; his reply was: 'I feel okay in myself, my hernia plays up a bit, but once it settles down I'll be better'bobstoothbrushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07458894787777624125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-28711312689121197342015-09-11T17:39:30.311+01:002015-09-11T17:39:30.311+01:00I'm BrE and can confirm that this question was...I'm BrE and can confirm that this question was very much in use in southern England in 1984. In that year I was very ill. When I came into work with my hair falling out or whatever, people would ask me how I was, and then follow up with the "in yourself" variant. This used to make me cross because I didn't know what they meant! However I knew they meant well so I just repeated "fine.". Thanks for having this debate - finally after 31 years I get it!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01559428576053434966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-43017008611514182852015-04-22T01:54:28.785+01:002015-04-22T01:54:28.785+01:00I see I've slightly changed Pratchett's pu...I see I've slightly changed Pratchett's punctuation. The actual quote is:<br /><br /><i>Do you feel invisible? In yourself, I mean?</i>David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-66442433654890617122015-04-22T01:13:03.607+01:002015-04-22T01:13:03.607+01:00BBC Radio 4 Extra is repeating the adaptation of T...BBC Radio 4 Extra is repeating the adaptation of Terry Pratchett's <i>Mort</i>. <br /><br />In tonight's episode, Princess Keli of Sto Lat consults a wizard. According to history and fate she should be dead, but Death's apprentice has impetuously saved her from assassination. So because she shouldn't be here, people around her are finding it very difficult to see her. Consultation-talk in Pratchett's imagination is much the same, doctor or wizard.<br /><br /><i>Do you feel invisible? In yourself, I mean.</i>David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-3509609920753103382015-04-21T16:07:26.436+01:002015-04-21T16:07:26.436+01:00Anonymous
It is a horrible-sounding question, an...Anonymous<br /><br /><i> It is a horrible-sounding question, and I hope it falls into disuse.</i><br /><br />For us in you host country it's a concerned-sounding question, and we hope it continues and flourishes.<br /><br />Of course, in this culture it couldn't possibly refer to psychic well-being, still less the addressee's self-esteem. That would be an impertinent, not to say cringe-making question.<br /><br />I'm not sure it has to be 100% physical. Feeling well in yourself may, I suggest, include an element mental <b>comfort</b>.David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-15349408294796754082015-04-21T01:27:45.197+01:002015-04-21T01:27:45.197+01:00Well, it's 2015 now, so I'm joining the di...Well, it's 2015 now, so I'm joining the discussion years later... but I can verify that this stupid phrase is truly alive and well.<br /><br />I'm an American studying medicine in England, and I've only ever heard this phrase used here in the UK, mainly by doctors. It is a horrible-sounding question, and I hope it falls into disuse.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-66996954466670629232010-07-02T15:28:32.105+01:002010-07-02T15:28:32.105+01:00In the US (at least around Philadelphia), if a doc...In the US (at least around Philadelphia), if a doctor wanted to ask how you were doing other than your immediate malady, s/he would likely actually use the words "in general", or "generally", as in "Other than your earache, how have you been feeling, in general?"jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-13883987723688438742010-05-25T17:22:18.393+01:002010-05-25T17:22:18.393+01:00I agree with SimonK.
I'm a medical student in ...I agree with SimonK.<br />I'm a medical student in London and we are taught to use this question to gently probe for depression.<br />If the patient isn't depressed they may say something like 'apart from xyz I feel fine'.<br />If they ask 'what do you mean by that?' then it leads nicely to more specific questions about 'low mood'.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-10457679796822350572010-01-07T23:12:03.464+00:002010-01-07T23:12:03.464+00:00Miller's distinction, though not the title phr...Miller's distinction, though not the title phrase of this post, is very familiar to me as someone who has a chronic disease and spends a lot of time under the weather because of (possibly related) minor acute diseases. If my hand hurts, I say "My hand hurts", but if my chest hurts, sometimes it's "My chest hurts" and sometimes, when the pain gets bad, it's "I hurt".<br /><br />I compare the latter situation to riding a barrel in a river, as Bilbo did in <i>The Hobbit</i>: sometimes you ride the barrel, sometimes the barrel rides you.John Cowanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11452247999156925669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-40680802530608079112009-03-08T11:39:00.000+00:002009-03-08T11:39:00.000+00:00Hooray, I was helpful!Hooray, I was helpful!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-19126336843976253042009-02-18T20:40:00.000+00:002009-02-18T20:40:00.000+00:00Really helpful contribution, Robbie!Really helpful contribution, Robbie!lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-8330463761657000062009-02-18T17:31:00.000+00:002009-02-18T17:31:00.000+00:00Potentilla has it spot on. How you feel "in yourse...Potentilla has it spot on. How you feel "in yourself" is how you feel systemically. That is, do you feel ill all over, or are you basically OK apart from something local?<BR/><BR/>The best description I've come across is in Jonathan Miller's <I>The Body in Question</I> (book based on the BBC series of the same name, dated 1978). This is from a discussion of medicine as a universal element of human culture. Here Miller has been talking about the traditional medicine of the Azande, a people of the southern Sudan.<BR/><BR/>"The Azande make an intuitive distinction between illnesses where the patient feels generally awful and those which merely affect local parts. Fevers, headaches, and abdominal pain are almost invariably treated by remedies taken by mouth. But when the disorder is confined to a limb or the skin, the patient simply dabs, binds, or anoints the affected part. The Azande share a worldwide conviction that the human physique is divided into two distinct sectors: a metropolitan self with which personal identity is associated, and a series of outlying protectorates whose disordered function may produce suffering without threatening the integrity of the individual. Our own language expresses this distinction very vividly. A patient with a painfully swollen knee will usually insist that he feels 'quite all right in himself', but when he is feverish or nauseated, or when the pain is in his chest or abdomen, he will usually announce that he feels 'rotten' or 'seedy'. In New Guinea, patients suffering from serious generalised disease talk of themselves as 'ruined'."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-1925634748020842582007-12-14T13:52:00.000+00:002007-12-14T13:52:00.000+00:00I think this is a neologism. I think it first appe...I think this is a neologism. I think it first appeared in British medical and veterinary consultations around 15 years ago.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-5775555426851046352007-11-23T09:34:00.000+00:002007-11-23T09:34:00.000+00:00No, it supports my (and others' in the comments he...No, it supports my (and others' in the comments here) interpretation that the question is about your physical/whole well-being in BrE (and not about psyche, which is all that we find in the AmE examples).lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-53349903685741740342007-11-23T01:25:00.000+00:002007-11-23T01:25:00.000+00:00Regarding the Danone postscript: since yoghurt is ...Regarding the Danone postscript: since yoghurt is more for the bowels than the psyche, does this count as a pun on "feel better in yourself"?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-68589352838204857812007-11-17T13:30:00.000+00:002007-11-17T13:30:00.000+00:00Speaking as a British English speaker from Yorkshi...Speaking as a British English speaker from Yorkshire, I would agree with simonk's asssessment - and I have infact been asked this by doctors in this context.pandophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12499439566627693699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-15155546825292724722007-11-16T17:07:00.000+00:002007-11-16T17:07:00.000+00:00I am a British long-term (cancer) patient. I get ...I am a British long-term (cancer) patient. I get this question from dootors, and sometimes nurses, quite often. It means something like "are you feeling systemically ill? at the moment" (leaving aside that you have a specific medical problem which we have just been discussing) or "are you managing to have a bit of a life or are you spending most of your time in bed?" (leaving aside that we both know you're in the middle of chemo).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-29684832949310392752007-11-16T08:47:00.000+00:002007-11-16T08:47:00.000+00:00I know my earlier post used a doctor as an example...I know my earlier post used a doctor as an example - but the 'image that pops into my head' when I hear the phrase is of two women talking about their ailments.<BR/><BR/>The context is the same - 'Oh you've got chilblains? But how are you feeling in your self?'<BR/><BR/>So in my BrE experience - the phrase is not just restricted to being a clever question used by doctors. However, it still means - 'how are you feeling apart from ailment X'.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-41919996686323214672007-11-16T05:15:00.000+00:002007-11-16T05:15:00.000+00:00You said: "I've been having a lot of medical appoi...You said: "I've been having a lot of medical appointments lately"<BR/><BR/>I hope you are feeling fine and you get over whatever it is really soon.Interfacehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10270650386605534373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-25597828980293346432007-11-16T00:22:00.000+00:002007-11-16T00:22:00.000+00:00I'm AmE but listen to lots of British radio and so...I'm AmE but listen to lots of British radio and some TV imports.<BR/><BR/>I've heard this expression only once before and that is from a Peter Cook and Dudley Moore routine in which Pete is a psychiatrist and Dud is the patient. As the story unfolds Dud says he has a new girlfriend whose name happens to be the same as Pete's wife and Dud has to pound it into Pete that this girl IS Pete's wife. <BR/><BR/>Pete explains this to Dud using all the psychiatric lingo and Dud gets excited. Pete understand it and accepts it. The more logical and clinical Pete gets the more upset Dud gets until Dud finally says he has to have the woman and therefore he has to kill Pete - now. Pete responds by saying 'Oh, I see your hour's up.'<BR/><BR/>Anyway the side trip starts with Pete asking Dud how he feels in himself.<BR/><BR/>BTW, from my experience 'Miss out' is definitely not American, it's British or at least English.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-13364240334972291902007-11-15T21:59:00.000+00:002007-11-15T21:59:00.000+00:00I am Br.Eng from just outside London and I agree w...I am Br.Eng from just outside London and I agree with simonk’s interpretation. Additionally, I think the doctor may have made a diagnosis and by asking this fairly innocuous question he/she is probing to see if you reveal any confirmatory symptoms, but he/she does not want to put ideas into your mind or confuse you. In other cases I suggest he/she has decided that your condition does not, at this stage, require medical intervention unless it is causing additional problems.Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13478343480167882044noreply@blogger.com