For many doctors, their role as powerful healer precludes thoughts of ever getting sick themselves. When they do, it initiates a profound shift of awareness-- not only in their sense of their selves, which is invariably bound up with the "invincible doctor" role, but in the way that they view
their patients and the doctor-patient relationship. While some books have been written from first-person perspectives on doctors who get sick-- by Oliver Sacks among them-- and TV shows like "House" touch on the topic, never has there been a "systematic, integrated look" at what the experience is
like for doctors who get sick, and what it can teach us about our current health care system and more broadly, the experience of becoming ill.
The psychiatrist Robert Klitzman here weaves together gripping first-person accounts of the experience of doctors who fall ill and see the other side of the coin, as a patient. The accounts reveal how dramatic this transformation can be-- a spiritual journey for some, a radical change of identity
for others, and for some a new way of looking at the risks and benefits of treatment options. For most however it forever changes the way they treat their own patients. These questions are important not just on a human interest level, but for what they teach us about medicine in America today.
While medical technology advances, the health care system itself has become more complex and frustrating, and physician-patient trust is at an all-time low. The experiences offered here are unique resource that point the way to a more humane future.
For many doctors, their role as powerful healer precludes thoughts of ever getting sick themselves. When they do, it initiates a profound shift of awareness-- not only in their sense of their selves, which is invariably bound up with the "invincible doctor" role, but in the way that they view
their patients and the doctor-patient relationship. While some books have been written from first-person perspectives on doctors who get sick-- by Oliver Sacks among them-- and TV shows like "House" touch on the topic, never has there been a "systematic, integrated look" at what the experience is
like for doctors who get sick, and what it can teach us about our current health care system and more broadly, the experience of becoming ill.
The psychiatrist Robert Klitzman here weaves together gripping first-person accounts of the experience of doctors who fall ill and see the other side of the coin, as a patient. The accounts reveal how dramatic this transformation can be-- a spiritual journey for some, a radical change of identity
for others, and for some a new way of looking at the risks and benefits of treatment options. For most however it forever changes the way they treat their own patients. These questions are important not just on a human interest level, but for what they teach us about medicine in America today.
While medical technology advances, the health care system itself has become more complex and frustrating, and physician-patient trust is at an all-time low. The experiences offered here are unique resource that point the way to a more humane future.
1: Introduction
PART I: Becoming a Patient:
2: "Magic White Coats": Forms of Denial and Other Internal
Obstacles to Becoming a Patient
3: "The Medical Self": Self-Doctoring and Choosing Doctors
4: "Screw-Ups" in the System and in Care: External Obstacles Faced
in Becoming Patients
5: "They treated me as if I were dead": Peripheralization and
Discrimination
6: "Coming Out" as Patients: Disclosures of Illness
PART II: Being a Doctor After Being A Patient:
7: Double Lens: Contrasting Views and Uses of Medical Knowledge
8: "Being Strong": Workaholism, Burnout, and Coping
9: "Once a Doctor, Always a Doctor?": Retirement
10: Touched by the Light: Spiritual Beliefs and their Obstacles
PART III: Interacting with Their Patients:
11: "Us vs. Them:" Treating Patients Differently
12: Improving Education: Can Empathy be Taught?
13: Conclusions: The Professional Self
References:
Index:
"Dr. Klitzman has captured masterfully what 'sick' doctors hide not
only from others but from themselves--their fears, hopes, practical
strategies of survival in their jobs and families, and--most
powerfully, their 'unscientific' approach to the world of the
spirit. The descriptions are rich, deep, sad, funny, and powerful.
Klitzman has done a marvelous job in painting the portrait of 'the
wounded healer'--the person within each of us doctors. To learn
that
the suffering of illness can lead a doctor toward more mutual,
compassionate connection with patients is an affirming, even
redeeming moment."--Dr. Samuel Shem, author of The House of God,
Mount Misery,
and Bill W. and Dr. Bob
"Who heals the healers? We all benefit from the answer."--Mehmet
Oz, author of You: The Owner's Manual
"Seneca famously said, 'The wounded doctor heals best,' and Robert
Klitzman's beautifully researched and intimate book examines this
idea. He combines his own experience as physician and patient with
in-depth interviews with a fantastic array of ailing doctors. As it
turns out, doctors can be disadvantaged by the anxiety attached to
mortality, but they can also grow and transform themselves when
they know both sides of the medical equation."--Andrew
Solomon, author of Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
"A comprehensive and deeply empathetic study of the wounded healer
as patient, colleague, and person."--Peter D. Kramer, author of
Freud: Inventor of the Modern Mind and Listening to Prozac
"Dr. Robert Klitzman, himself a physician who has faced serious
illness, gives a fascinating 360 degree portrait of what happens
when those charged with healing others unexpectedly find themselves
in the vulnerable role of patient."--Howard Gardner, Hobbs
Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of
Education
"Anyone in healthcare will be moved and benefit immensely from this
book. The author is a compassionate and well read clinician of both
psychiatry and of the human spirit...Every chapter is
engaging...This is recommended reading for everyone in healthcare.
This is one of the best books of the year."--Doody's
"Klitzman...is part of a contemporary group of reflective doctors
who, through their writings, contribute to the less palpable but
nevertheless crucial moral, social, and experiential dimensions of
medicine."--British Medical Journal
"A great strength of the book lies in the richness of the patients'
words, through which the reader learns firsthand that illness is
transforming and that 'human lives are messy and complex.'"--New
England Journal of Medicine
"Klitzman's work is an important contribution to physical training
and patient care. The wisdom shared in When Doctors Become Patients
holds potential to make all physicians better
caregivers."--JAMA
"This is a thoughtful and carefully written book. Read it. You will
not come away unaffected."--Journal of Clinical Investigation
"[Klitzman] interviewed more than 50 doctors who suffered from such
diseases as HIV, Hodgkin's lymphoma, breast cancer, bipolar
disorder and leukemia. Identified only by pseudonyms, they bared
their souls to Klitzman. The result is a remarkable book,When
Doctors Become Patients, which helps illuminate the medical
profession's mind-set under duress."--The Associated Press
"Dr. Robert Klitzman, himself a physician who has faced serious
illness, gives a fascinating 360 degree portrait of what happens
when those charged with healing others unexpectedly find themselves
in the vulnerable role of patient."--Howard Gardner, Hobbs
Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of
Education
"A comprehensive and deeply empathetic study of the wounded healer
as patient, colleague, and person."--Peter D. Kramer, author of
Freud: Inventor of the Modern Mind and Listening to Prozac
"Seneca famously said, 'The wounded doctor heals best,' and Robert
Klitzman's beautifully researched and intimate book examines this
idea. He combines his own experience as physician and patient with
in-depth interviews with a fantastic array of ailing doctors. As it
turns out, doctors can be disadvantaged by the anxiety attached to
mortality, but they can also grow and transform themselves when
they know both sides of the medical equation."--Andrew
Solomon, author of Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
"Who heals the healers? We all benefit from the answer."--Mehmet
Oz, author of You: The Owner's Manual
"Dr. Klitzman has captured masterfully what 'sick' doctors hide not
only from others but from themselves--their fears, hopes, practical
strategies of survival in their jobs and families, and--most
powerfully, their 'unscientific' approach to the world of the
spirit. The descriptions are rich, deep, sad, funny, and powerful.
Klitzman has done a marvelous job in painting the portrait of 'the
wounded healer'--the person within each of us doctors. To learn
that
the suffering of illness can lead a doctor toward more mutual,
compassionate connection with patients is an affirming, even
redeeming moment."--Dr. Samuel Shem, author of The House of God,
Mount Misery,
and Bill W. and Dr. Bob
"Anyone in healthcare will be moved and benefit immensely from this
book. The author is a compassionate and well read clinician of both
psychiatry and of the human spirit...Every chapter is
engaging...This is recommended reading for everyone in healthcare.
This is one of the best books of the year."--Doody's
"Klitzman...is part of a contemporary group of reflective doctors
who, through their writings, contribute to the less palpable but
nevertheless crucial moral, social, and experiential dimensions of
medicine."--British Medical Journal
"This is a thoughtful and carefully written book. Read it. You will
not come away unaffected."--Journal of Clinical Investigation
"When Doctors Become Patients addresses the ethos and pathos of a
universal but frequently taboo subject for physicians. Robert
Klitzman, a psychiatrist and bioethicist at Columbia University,
has composed a print documentary consisting of the distilled and
interwoven narratives of nearly 50 physician-patients combined with
the author's deft analysis and measured self-reflection. The
reading of Dr. Klitzman's thoughtfully conceived and constructed
book
is instructive and therapeutic as it allows the reader to
comtemplate his or her own responses to illness and suffering...we
glimpse in Dr. Klitzman's book a transformed "Home of Women and
Men" in which the
humanity, hopes, uncertainty, fears, and frailty common to both
doctors and patients might be addressed with compassion, dignity,
humility, and reverence."--Peter Lewis, MD as reviewed in Family
Medicine
"What is unique here is that this is the first study to
systematically document the complex, emotionally difficult process
by which doctors assume the role of patient, replete with struggles
over issues related to their mortality, physical limitations, and
possible retirement from clinical practice...Klitzman's interviews
are as rich in detail as they are emotionally poignant...When
Doctors Become Patients offers us a rare peek into the
complexities
associated with dedicating one's professional life to medicine and
healing, all the while struggling with a serious, often fatal
illness...a fascinating analysis..."--Sociology of Health and
Illness
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