The shift from extended to nuclear family networks had swept across the industrialized world in tandem with the shift toward speed, efficiency, and competition as the dominant terms of progress. As much as I accepted these norms while growing up, after becoming a doctor and confronting widespread loneliness among my patients, I began to suspect we’d lost something more valuable than we realized in this transition to modern culture. On the rare occasions when large extended families like Mrs. Bekele’s appeared in the hospital, their presence was almost always a net benefit, as they brought with
...more
