Becoming a Doctor

Melvin Konner-well-known scholar, tenured professor, respected writer, husband, and father-entered medical school at the age of thirty-three. Becoming a Doctor is his account of the third year of medical school, when students first apply the results of their endless book-learning and test-taking to actual patients in life-and-death situations. While taking the reader on his "rounds," Konner portrays candidly and eloquently that hectic, life-changing year. He points out the problems of a system that often teaches medical students to distance themselves from their patients, to focus on technology rather than humanity. As an anthropologist, Konner gives us new insights into the habits, rituals, and customs that shape the strengths and weaknesses of the medical profession today. Book jacket.