1st Edition
Contemporary Physician-Authors Exploring the Insights of Doctors Who Write
This book examines the phenomenon of physician-authors. Focusing on the books that contemporary doctors write--the stories that they tell--with contributors critically engaging their work.
A selection of original chapters from leading scholars in medical and health humanities analyze the literary output of doctors, including Oliver Sacks, Danielle Ofri, Atul Gawande, Louise Aronson, Siddhartha Mukherjee, and Abraham Verghese. Discussing issues of moral meaning in the works of contemporary doctor-writers, from memoir to poetry, this collection reflects some of the diversity of medicine today.
A key reference for all students and scholars of medical and health humanities, the book will be especially useful for those interested in the relationship between literature and practising medicine.
Introduction
Nathan Carlin
Part One: Two Traditional Representatives
Chapter 1- Richard Selzer: Three Troubling Tales of Physicians’ Peculiar Behavior
Tony Miksanek
Chapter 2- Oliver Sacks: A Kind of Reminiscence
Tom Koch
Part Two: Three Contemporary Favorites
Chapter 3- Perri Klass: Books Are Like Stethoscopes
Seema Yasmin
Chapter 4- Abraham Verghese: The Power of Storytelling
Kaarkuzhali Babu Krishnamurthy
Chapter 5- Atul Gawande: Doctoring, Dying, and the Pursuit of "Better"
Thomas D. Harter
Part Three: Medicine, Meaning, and Identity
Chapter 6- Danielle Ofri: Offering Lessons for All
Susan Stagno
Chapter 7- Paul Kalanithi: Sometimes, They Break—Craft as a Window
Lise Saffran
Chapter 8- Joanna Cannon: Leaving Medicine to Pursue a Physician’s Calling
Abraham M. Nussbaum
Chapter 9- Damon Tweedy: Stories on Being Black, Sick, and Marginalized
Keisha Ray
Chapter 10- Fady Joudah: An Exploration of Borders and Boundaries
Andrew Childress
Chapter 11- Louise Aronson: Using Facts and Stories to Improve Medical Care for Older Adults
Craig M. Klugman
Chapter 12- Marc Agronin: Into the Heart of Growing Old
Jill Yamasaki
Part Four: Alternative Models
Chapter 13- David Watts and Frank Huyler: A Tale of Two Patients
David Elkin
Chapter 14- Siddhartha Mukherjee: Tending and Extending—The Long and Short of Siddhartha Mukherjee
Sandhya Shetty
Chapter 15- Arthur Kleinman: Professional Caregiving Narratives Become Personal
Carol Levine
Biography
Nathan Carlin is Professor in the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, USA, where he holds the Samuel Karff Chair.
"Contemporary Physicians-Authors demonstrates that most of today's writers speak in a self-aware, reflective voice that keeps them close to the ground, while they also retain the flexibility to take a more bird's-eye view to comment, report, and advocate. The book's primary audience is academic (e.g., students and professors of medical humanities), but anyone who has read a few or more of these authors is likely to find something of interest and perhaps discover a brand-new author to investigate."
-Jack Coulehan, Journal of Medical Humanities
