Abstract

Doctors as patients: Historical perspectives on the challenge of personal illness among practising physicians

Highlights

  • Ärzte als Patienten gives a fascinating insight into doctors’ views on their illnesses, but for the modern reader is a historical illustration of how the concept of disease vary over time, with narratives concerning Hysterie, Geiststörung, and Homosexualität

  • While Pinner and Miller in the 1950s suggest their book would be useful for the non-medical reader since doctors are ‘able to make new adjustments that would not be possible for the average patient’(p.xvii), Mandell and Spiro in the 1980s address the medical reader: ‘Since every physician cannot have every disease ... we thought physicians might benefit, if not prosper, from the illnesses of their colleagues’(p.xii)

  • Another difference is that When doctors get sick (1987), unlike the two earlier anthologies, focuses on the contributors’ difficulties in coming to terms with their dual identity as both doctor and patient: ‘The physician trying to remain in control of his own care forgets the clouded judgement of the sick and how wrong their choices may be.’ (p.454)

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Summary

Introduction

Ärzte als Patienten gives a fascinating insight into doctors’ views on their illnesses, but for the modern reader is a historical illustration of how the concept of disease vary over time, with narratives concerning Hysterie, Geiststörung, and Homosexualität. In order to properly assess such narratives, it is essential to know what instructions the editors gave their authors. This is spelt out in both anthologies, as well as in the more recent When doctors get sick (1987), edited by Harvey Mandell and Howard Spiro [12].

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