The Measure of Our Days is a beautiful, sensitively written
book of
essays by Jerome Groopman, an oncologist and professor at Harvard
Medical School. Dr. Groopman's own humanity and dedication to his
patients are quite awe-inspiring, as is the courage displayed by the
people featured in these stories. A very engaging read.
The Poetry of Healing is another amazing book about a
physician's
personal experiences. Raphael Campo's poet sensibilities are obvious
throughout this book exploring his
identity as a queer Latino physician. Dr. Campo was born in Cuba,
went to Amherst College and Harvard Medical School, completed
residency training at UCSF at the height of the AIDS epidemic, and is
now a staff physician at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital.
A Not Entirely Benign Procedure is Perri Klass'
collection of essays about her experiences as a Harvard medical student.
This is an interesting, thoughtful, often humorous book that gives a
pretty realistic impression of life at HMS. Dr. Klass is now a
pediatrician at Boston Medical Center.
Becoming a
Doctor
is
an HMS story of a different sort. Mel Konner was in his thirties and a
Harvard anthropology professor when he decided to go to medical school.
He
went through med school with a relatively detached, anthropological eye,
and so developed a very different 'physician identity' than most medical
students do. He is very critical (often rightly so) of medical training.
This book is excellently written. Konner (to my knowledge) never did a
residency, and is now a highly regarded anthropology professor at
Emory. He is also the author of the canonical biological anthropology
text The Tangled Wing.
Now a classic, The House
of
God is a
fictionalized account of the pseudonymous Samuel Shem's internship year at
Boston's Beth Israel Hospital in the late 1960s (early 1970s? I
forget). It is hilarious and
disturbing and scathing. A scary but required read for anyone interested
in medical training. Much of the jargon and 'Rules' of the House of
God are now intern canon all over the world. "Shem" went on to become a
psychiatrist
and practices at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. He recently
wrote a similar account of his psychiatry training, called Mount
Misery, which I have not read. Legend has it that he has never
again set foot in the BI, more out of the hospital's refusal than his
own.
My Own
Country is a
doctor's story about treating AIDS patients in the very early days of the
epidemic. Abraham Verghese was an infectious disease specialist in
Tennessee when he began taking care of people with HIV. This is his
personal account of his growth as a person and a physician as his career
took an unexpected turn while he became one of the only HIV specialists in
his area. Honest and moving.
A patient's point
of view: Girl, Interrupted is
Susanna Kaysen's retrospective account of her two year long psychiatric
admission
to McLean Hospital as a teenager. This well written, exceedingly honest
book will make you question your definition of sanity and the accuracy
of memory as Kaysen
illustrates how blurred the lines can become.
In Reviving
Ophelia, Mary Pipher uses stories from her practice as an
adolescent and family psychologist to discuss the problems of teenage
girls growing up in America today. This is an accessible, fascinating
exploration of this critical topic.
Irwin Yalom, a preeminent
psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, explores his relationships with his
analysis patients in Love's Executioner. This is a great
book for learning about psychiatry and talk therapy through Yalom's
intelligent, sensitive, anecdotal style.
Leah Hager Cohen grew up
in New York, the hearing child of Deaf parents who ran a school for
hearing-impaired students. In Train Go
Sorry she takes the reader into her unique world, opening a
fascinating window into Deaf culture. This is really a wonderful
book.
Another amazing book about
deafness is Oliver Sacks' Seeing Voices. Sacks, the author
of Awakenings and many other books about neurology, writes
accessibly about the history of deafness and Deaf culture in the United
States. A terrific introduction to the topic by a great science
writer.
Another don't miss Oliver Sacks book is The Man Who Mistook His
Wife for a Hat, in which Sacks relates the stories of patients
stricken by mysterious or downright bizarre neurological illnesses, some
of which challenge definitions of personhood and identity.
JUST KIDDING!
Hey! Something non-medical, finally...
This is a really terrific
book, despite or because of the fact that it's aimed at a young
adult/junior high kind of audience. Freak the Mighty,
written by Rodman Philbrick, is a sweet novel about two misfit boys, one
gangly, clumsy and accustomed to being called stupid, the other brilliant
and physically stunted, who tap each other's strengths and become great
friends, sharing adventures, triumphs and sadness. It is a surprisingly
wonderful read that only takes a few hours at most. I picked it up
because it is soon to be released as a movie, entitled The Mighty,
starring the incredible Gillian
Anderson. The IMDB sez it will be released 10/30/98, but it was
shown at Cannes, and is already getting some nice
reviews.