On Doctoring : New, Revised and Expanded Third Edition

Rating:
Summary: The Art of Medicine...
Review: ...the science of health. The art and science of the human spirit.

These are given every year to first year students by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and in my opinion, it is like a trusted physician's black bag in which you have the practitioner's stethoscope and blood pressure cuff and plenty of simple pharmacies for a house call--one in which the doctor is not in a hurry to run.

Let not the title catch the layperson off kilter--it's chocked full of good stuff for the rest of us humans who just like to read classic and near-classic works. Like some of my favorites: Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Dickinson, Larynx by Neruda, House Calls by Lewis Thomas and A Summer Tragedy by Arna Bontemps. There's a superb essay on wonder and the evolution of the human spirit by Melvin Konner. There's a Vonnegutian reworking of Frankenstein ( "a crass medical genius" with my real supervisor's first name--I'm grinning as I type this). There's a Chekhov piece on the loss of hope and sadness when one loses a child. Then there's copies of art--Munch, Rockwell, Fildes. Plus, lots, lots more.

First year medical students who usually are to busy to read anything for enjoyment, are missing out on a great collection if they don't stop to smell some of these literary roses. We lay folk with a taste for a great read or two will take us this slack and pass the word on how superb is this collection.

Rating:
Summary: Fair Attempt to Expound Literary Art in a Medical Paradigm
Review: I, along with all my other classmates, received this book at the beginning of medical school at our white coat ceremony. It was presented to us as a collection of anecdotal stories and poems that would help us maintain our focus on the humanistic side of medicine and keep our passions for the practice alive while toiling away at arduous scientific study and long clinical hours. There are some excerpts and short works in the book that do just that. I found myself inspired and feeling enlightened after reading these parts of the book. However, this did not comprise the majority of the book for me. Most of it kept me on the verge of reading and sleep. Several of the poems failed to grip me in the way a select few of the stories had done. Although much of health care deals with the elderly, the book seemed to drone on and on with the experiences of the geriatric to the extent that at times, it felt a more apt title would be On Being Old. For the most part, I felt this work tried to pressure literary art on to medicine. There is a lot of rich and passionate literature related to medicine, but I felt that mostly only less than great works were included here. It was an o.k. experience to read through On Doctoring which did have its gripping pages, but I would probably not recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Medicine & Literature - the promise fulfilled
Review: Reynolds, Stone and (new to this edition) Nixon have produced an almost magical book. I've used the previous two editions of this anthology in a seminar with third-year law students and fourth-year medical students ("Law, Literature & Medicine") and look forward to using this new edition in 2002. The impressive literary range represented here -- from the ancients to the most modern (including a little gem from an 11-year-old poet) -- captures the perspectives of patient, healer, family member and others who must deal with illness or death. Many of the classics are collected here (Dylan Thomas (Do not go gently), John Donne (Death be not proud), O.W. Holmes (The Stethoscope). In addition, the editors' command of modern texts -- especially short stories and poems -- gives fresh voice to up-to-the-minute versions of ancient concerns. This book gives new meaning, and new signficance, to the idea of "the art of medicine." Anyone who is facing or may face illness or death, or knows someone else who will face these inevitabilities (that is: ALL OF US) will be enriched by this unique and valuable collection.

Rating:
Summary: Medicine & Literature - the promise fulfilled
Review: Reynolds, Stone and (new to this edition) Nixon have produced an almost magical book. I've used the previous two editions of this anthology in a seminar with third-year law students and fourth-year medical students ("Law, Literature & Medicine") and look forward to using this new edition in 2002. The impressive literary range represented here -- from the ancients to the most modern (including a little gem from an 11-year-old poet) -- captures the perspectives of patient, healer, family member and others who must deal with illness or death. Many of the classics are collected here (Dylan Thomas (Do not go gently), John Donne (Death be not proud), O.W. Holmes (The Stethoscope). In addition, the editors' command of modern texts -- especially short stories and poems -- gives fresh voice to up-to-the-minute versions of ancient concerns. This book gives new meaning, and new signficance, to the idea of "the art of medicine." Anyone who is facing or may face illness or death, or knows someone else who will face these inevitabilities (that is: ALL OF US) will be enriched by this unique and valuable collection.