1st Edition

Contemporary Physician-Authors Exploring the Insights of Doctors Who Write

Edited By Nathan Carlin Copyright 2021
276 Pages
by Routledge

276 Pages
by Routledge

276 Pages
by Routledge

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,... Read more

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