I used to think one had to choose a career and work at it, giving up the parts of himself that didn’t fit neatly into that category. I was wrong. As a man in my late thirties, I am an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, but I’m also a writer. It’s books like the ones I’ve recommended here that convinced me that one does not need to turn off the parts of himself that are creative in order to be a doctor or even a grown-up. In fact, cultivating those same parts can be additive to this whole experience of being an adult.
I wrote...
Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training
By
Adam Stern
What is my book about?
Committedtells the story of Dr. Adam Stern’s journey from wide-eyed med school graduate to full-fledged Harvard psychiatrist. On its surface, Committedis a very realistic account of what it’s like to train in psychiatry at one of the most prestigious programs in the country while at its very core, it’s really a book about finding human connection and even love. Dr. Stern brings the reader along as he pulls the curtain back on the emotional toll of training. He reveals to the reader the strengths and many limitations of the field of psychiatry and shows that a foundation of empathy alone can go a long way toward helping another person.
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The Books I Picked & Why
Intern: A Doctor's Initiation
By
Sandeep Jauhar
Why this book?
Intern is the realest account I’ve ever read of what it’s truly like to start working after leaving the nest of medical school. Jauhar’s writing is crisp and human, while the content gives the reader a true glimpse into the life of a new doctor. This book taught me that it was okay to experience impostor syndrome, to feel overwhelmed, and to express yourself creatively even as a doctor. This author has gone on to write regularly in The New York Times and has become one of medicine’s most treasured physician-writers.
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Letter to a Young Female Physician: Notes from a Medical Life
By
Suzanne Koven
Why this book?
Dr. Koven and I are on the same broad faculty at Harvard Medical School, though we had never crossed paths until our medical memoirs were released the same year. I got to know her a bit in that time, but even more so in the pages of her wonderful memoir, Letter to a Young Female Physician. This book so clearly elucidates and humanizes the complex path of becoming a physician as a woman and the lessons she learned along the way. Its pages are as charming as they are poignant.
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When Breath Becomes Air
By
Paul Kalanithi
Why this book?
As recent as its publication was, Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Airhas truly become an instant classic in the space of medical memoir as it spans the space between and across the authoritative physician and the patient seeking help. In Paul’s case, he experienced both as he was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer during his surgical residency. Paul manages to reveal within his words and complex thoughts just how rich a person’s spirit can be even whilst its body is beginning to fail.
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Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
By
Atul Gawande
Why this book?
Atul Gawande manages to write compellingly about all manner of topics – even surgical check-lists – so when he decided to take on the hearty meat of life and death, there was no chance this book was not going to be outstanding. I recommend Being Mortal for all doctors, patients, parents, and children – yes, just about everyone. It’s the first book I’ve come across that so honestly advises, educates, and still entertains on the topic of some process we all have in common – the act of leaving this world.
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The House of God
By
Samuel Shem
Why this book?
Though technically a work of loose fiction based on his experiences as an intern, I do not feel it is right to have a list of medical memoirs without The House of Godholding down the anchor. Several decades old now, it remains the standard for the delicate space between self-disclosure in medicine and irreverence. Physician writers know it can be hard to thread that particular needle, but Shem does it so well that there is seldom a medical student who comes through training who has not picked up a copy at one point or another.
