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The subject of the report is 56 years old at the time of this writing. She has been widowed for the last seven years, is childless, and adds to her income as a professional musician by doing part-time work for one of the New York City colleges. Seven years ago she had lung cancer, refused all medical intervention, and recovered. I learned of the case by the long arm of coincidence, when her brother happened to ask my advice about a job offer, and I asked him about his sister, who had been my patient 28 years ago, as had he.
The case is particularly instructive because all the essential information about the clinical history had been obtained 24 years prior to the cancer episode, and the subject had been cooperative in seeing me two years after the cancer episode for additional information. The case furthermore provides a good illustration of the general observation on cancer: that the external history appears to be one of good health and social adjustment, at variance with the inner history. I therefore shall present the case first as it presented itself to a careful clinical observer, and then as it presented itself to an investigator of the inner history of the patient.