I have seen it before in women. Seen them drive from the room them coming with sympathy and pity, with actual help, and clinging to some trifling animal to whom they never were more than pack-horses. That's what they mean by the love that

passeth understanding: that pride, that furious desire to hide the abject nakedness which we bring here with us, carry with us into operating rooms... - excerpt from "As I lay Dying"