Recommendations you can check.
GP and writer; author of Adventures in Human Being, Shapeshifters and Intensive Care.
6 things
A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country DoctorBook Jean Mohr & John Berger
The book becomes an extended meditation on the practice of medicine, which is an attempt to engage a deep sense of fraternity.
Five Books interview on medicine and literature
2018-04-16·fivebooks.com ↗
Intoxicated By My IllnessBook Anatole Broyard
I appreciate this book for its irreverence, the elegance of its prose and because the essays in it are succinct, punchy, with the tyrannical discipline that newspaper journalism has to have.
Five Books interview on medicine and literature
2018-04-16·fivebooks.com ↗
That the Best Physician is Also a PhilosopherBook Galen
There's another ancient text I could have mentioned: Galen's That the Best Physician is Also a Philosopher. It's essentially a call to arms for doctors to concentrate on the perfection of their clinical skills and to give up on ideas of attempts to get rich through their art. It shows all the ways in which he doesn't trust those doctors who use their talents for a gain other than the benefit of their patients. It is short and elegant.
Five Books interview on medicine and literature
2018-04-16·fivebooks.com ↗
Hippocratic WritingsBook Hippocrates
So right there at the beginning, before there was even a profession such as medicine, there is some writing with a scientific appreciation of the body and how to make it better. There's no dogma here, because they're constantly asking, try this for yourself, prove me wrong! And there is also the beginning of a professional ethic about a group of people who should hold each other to high moral and clinical standards. A few of the writings complain about quacks, who rip people off, and don't pay attention to the high standards.
Five Books interview on medicine and literature
2018-04-16·fivebooks.com ↗
FrissureBook Kathleen Jamie
So it's a book which is utterly original and gets at something very real and valuable about convalescence. Sometimes I find myself recommending it to patients.
Five Books interview on medicine and literature
2018-04-16·fivebooks.com ↗
On Being IllBook Virginia Woolf
I think it's a really important piece of writing just because it's so beautifully executed. That said, it does lose its way about half way through, and Woolf goes off in pursuit of some enthusiasms that I don't share.
Five Books interview on medicine and literature
2018-04-16·fivebooks.com ↗
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