Fiction As Resistance : Samuel Shem's Writings.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berman, Jeffrey.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hospitals in literature.

Medical ethics in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (263 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bradford : Ethics International Press Limited, 2024.

Summary:

Samuel Shem is the nom de plume of the psychiatrist Stephen J. Bergman, one of the country's leading contemporary psychiatrist-novelists. A graduate of Harvard and Harvard Medical School, Bergman (Shem) earned his PhD as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. He was a professor of psychiatry at Harvard for over thirty years. His first novel, The House of God (1978), was called by the British medical journal The Lancet "one of the two most important American medical novels of the twentieth century." The House of God is the first of what Shem calls the Healing Quartet, which includes Mount Misery (1997), Man's 4th Best Hospital (2019), and Our Hospital (2023). The Healing Quartet affirms the importance of physicians remaining human in medicine, a signature Shem theme, that unifies his fictional and nonfictional writings. Shem is a relentless critic of the medical establishment, offering an insider's critique of hospital administrators and physicians who place profits above patients' welfare. Fiction as Resistance will appeal to readers interested in the medical humanities, a growing interdisciplinary movement connecting literature, the arts, and culture as they relate to healthcare. Though many articles and reviews of Shem's writings have been published in scholarly and popular magazines and journals, Fiction as Resistance is the first book on this noteworthy psychiatrist/novelist.

Contents:

Acknowledgments

Introduction

A Biographical Sketch and Brief Overview of Shem’s Writings

Janet Surrey

Fiction as Resistance

Writing for Catharsis

The Plan of This Book

Chapter 1 The House of God

What’s in a Name?

Berry

The Fat Man

Jo

Two Memorable Policemen

The Laws of The House of God

Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of The House of God

Chapter 2 Napoleon’s Dinner and Room for One Woman

Napoleon’s Dinner

Room for One Woman

Chapter 3 Fine

“Why Are Analysts So Weird?”

Elvin V. Semrad

Healing Humor

“Always Fail, Every Day”

Finding the Murderer

Chapter 4 Bill W. and Dr. Bob

Spiritual But Not Religious

Storytelling

Passing the Test of Time

Popular and Critical Success

Chapter 5 Mount Misery Generated by AI.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.

ISBN:

9781804419540

1804419540

OCLC:

1478700560