Posted on May 10, 2008 by docartemis
Posted on May 4, 2008 by docartemis
I have mentioned Nancy Yanes Hoffman’s Writing Doctor’s Blog several times in the past. She has graciously allowed me to quote from her recent review of WHEN DOCTORS BECOME PATIENTS by Robert Klitzman.
When Harcourt bought CHANGE OF HEART: The Bypass Experience, my book interviewing 1100 veterans of coronary bypass surgery, I was elated. Flush with my success, I tried to convince them to publish my next book interviewing 100 doctors who were veterans of coronary bypass surgery.
“Nobody will be interested,” retorted the editor. But he was wrong.
Robert Klitzman’s important new book, WHEN DOCTORS BECOME PATIENTS, proved just how wrong one editor can be.
Klitzman interviewed 70 physicians, male and female, young and old—from 25 to 87, all victimized by a variety of chronic and acute diseases including lymphoma, breast cancer, skin cancer, Huntington’s disease, heart attacks, depression, bipolar distress, and an overly high incidence of HIV.
Whatever their illnesses were, disease was isolating. Even though their different illnesses mandated a variety of diagnoses, treatment, responses, and coping mechanisms, many sick doctors felt left on their doorsteps by calloused and unsympathetic colleagues. Since 34 percent of doctors in Klitzman’s study were HIV positive or suffered from frank AIDs, most opted for secrecy. But the four women physicians killed by metastatic cancer within a year after Klitzman finished his book also faced “peripheralization and discrimination.” One physician reporting that her colleagues “treated me as if I were dead.”
Even if these doctor-patients wanted to talk to their physicians, communicating with physicians was a tough ball game. Here, the doctor who is sick confronts the same barriers as the non-doctor who wants to communicate with his or her physician. (Read the rest.)
Actually the obstacles between physician-patients and their physicians are more difficult than one might imagine. In my own personal experience I have found that it is actually better when my physician forgets I am a doctor (which seems to be surprisingly easy for male docs taking care of female collegues!).
Read the rest of Hoffman’s Review Now.
Be sure to leave her a comment so that she will know you heard about her blog here.
Filed under: Books, reviews | Tagged: Nancy Yanes-Hoffman, Robert Klitzman, When Doctors Become Patients, Writing Doctor's Blog | 1 Comment »
Posted on April 22, 2008 by docartemis
Posted on April 1, 2008 by docartemis
Posted on March 30, 2008 by docartemis
Posted on March 29, 2008 by docartemis
Back in Episode 12 I reviewed the first edition of The Myth of Free Will: Revised & Expanded Edition (200 
by Cris Evatt. I am proud to announce that I have a short chapter in the revised edition “My Brain Made Me Do It.” This essay is a reflection on the implications of the recent findings of neuroscience that indicate that a large amount of our brain’s decision-making occurs outside our conscious awareness. Even so I argue that the concept of personal responsibility should not be abandoned because our frontal lobes do have the ability to overrule many reflex decisions. I also consider the implications of neuroplasticity.
You can find this book in the Books and Ideas aStore within Amazon.com.
Filed under: Announcements, Books | Tagged: Books and Ideas aStore, Chris Evatt, The Myth of Free Will | No Comments »
Posted on March 28, 2008 by docartemis
Posted on February 26, 2008 by docartemis
Posted on February 22, 2008 by docartemis
This week’s Science magazine includes a profile of Canadian paleontologist Stephen Godfrey. What makes his story unusual is that he was raised as a fundamentalist Christian to believe in the creationist dogma of a 6,000 year-old earth. The article highlights why it can be very difficult to make such a transition since it also makes one an outsider. Not only may the young person lose their place in their religious community, but they may find find themselves reluctant to share their past with their new scientist colleagues who generally tend to assume that all creationists are intellectually inferior.
This article interested me on two levels. For one thing, I think it makes some points that need to be acknowledged if mainstream scientists hope to win over potential young scientists from the admittedly growing influence of the creationists. On a more personal level, it reminded me of my own personal journey when back in my early 20’s (in the late 1970’s) I left Jehovah’s Witnesses largely because I realized that they had totally misrepresented the scientific evidence about evolution. I reached this conclusion after studying the evidence myself. While I felt a sense of intellectual liberation, I also felt the pain of losing my religious community. I think it is important to realize that since humans are social by nature we have to realize that these ties are extremely powerful and can be a formidable obstacle to getting people to examine their beliefs.
EVOLUTION: Crossing the Divide by Jennifer Couzin. Science 22 February 2008: Vol. 319. no. 5866, pp. 1034 - 1036
Filed under: essays, science | Tagged: creationism versus evolution, Jehovah's witnesses, Science magazine, Stephen Godfrey | No Comments »
Posted on February 15, 2008 by docartemis
