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Committed : Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training – Adam Stern
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COMMITTED : Dispatches From A Psychiatrist In Training

Adam Stern. MD
BRAND NEW, HARDCOVER

RM33.00

A Memoir Vividly Captures The Making Of A Psychiatrist, The Urgency, Chaos, And Eerie Fascination Involved With The Treatment Of Mental Illness

Remarks Free Cover-Pages Wrapping
ISBN 9780358434733
Book Condition BRAND NEW
Format HARDCOVER
Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Publication Date 29 Sep 2021
Pages 320
Weight 0.52 kg
Dimension 21 × 14 × 3.5 cm
Retail Price RM128.57
Availability: Out of stock

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Grey’s Anatomy meets One L in this psychiatrist’s charming and poignant memoir about his residency at Harvard.
 
How does one become a psychiatrist? How can anyone understand what makes another person tick? Those are the questions this memoir—the story of how Adam Stern trained for and ultimately became a psychiatrist—tries to answer.
 
Adam Stern was a student at a state medical school before being selected to train as a psychiatry resident at one of the most prestigious programs in the country. His new and initially intimidating classmates were high achievers from the Ivy League and other elite universities around the nation. Faculty raved about the group as though the residency program had won the lottery, nicknaming them “The Golden Class,” but would Stern ever prove that he belonged?
 
In his memoir, Stern pulls back the curtain on the intense and emotionally challenging lessons he and his fellow doctors learned while studying the human condition, and ultimately, the value of connection. The narrative focuses on these residents, their growth as doctors, and the life choices they make as they try to survive their grueling four-year residency.


Readers will benefit from wisdom shared from numerous patient relationships throughout his psychiatric residency. For example, Stern poignantly observes that at the core of the psychiatric field is an intimate understanding of the human condition and the call to help individuals thrive “in spite of, or even because of, the immense challenges they face.” His apt summation of the clinician’s duty and his patients’ challenges demonstrate a deep understanding of his profession.
 
Rich with drama, insight, and emotion, Stern shares engrossing stories of life on the psychiatric wards, as well as the group’s experiences as they grapple with impostor syndrome and learn about love and loss. Most importantly, as they study how to help distressed patients in search of a better life, they discover the meaning of failure and the preciousness of success.
 
Furthermore, Stern’s candid confessions of struggling with imposter syndrome as a newly minted resident and his subsequent transformation into a full-fledged psychiatrist authentically portray the exacting journey toward becoming a clinician.
 
With adeptness and compassion, he crafts a series of poignant patient vignettes that reveal the struggles and bonds forged through the healing process and leave readers with insight into the unique therapeutic relationships formed between doctors and their patients.
 
Ultimately, the memoir casts fresh light on the inner workings of psychiatric residency and leaves no doubt that Stern is a psychiatrist who cares profoundly about his patients.
 
Committed also contends with significantly pressing and challenging bioethical issues in psychiatry. For example, when Stern is confronted with the disconcerting reality that, at times, psychiatrists and other clinical professionals are tasked with initiating involuntary treatment, he highlights his moral dilemma.
 
He confides, “I hated the idea of working against the patient… treating anyone against their will seemed counter to the image I had of what it meant to be a doctor.” Stern genuinely grapples with the ethical implications of involuntary treatment and what it means to be a doctor while demonstrating a mature awareness of potential countertransferential factors.
 
The practice of involuntary treatment is fraught with a history of abuse and maltreatment. Even today, receiving involuntary treatment can be traumatic for patients and cast a negative emotional valence that biases their attitudes toward mental health care and professionals.
 
In turn, this bias affects engagement and adherence with treatment—in many cases, to the patient’s harm. Committed does not back down from addressing aperennial and contentious quandary within the field and among patients living with psychiatric illness, and it gets to the moral heart of the matter for the aspiring clinician.
 
That’s not to say this memoir is without merit. Dr. Stern’s humanity and his ability to write about his suffering patients saves the day and makes the memoir an intellectual page-turner. It is illuminating (and maybe a little unsettling) to know that, even in as prestigious a medical school as Harvard, the recruits go in understanding very little about their chosen field and learn by doing. Almost like a car mechanic. And when the book succeeds, it’s because Dr. Stern writes humanely about his interactions with patients such as Jane, who suffers from anorexia nervosa.
 
Because this is a memoir and not only an essay about how to become a psychiatrist, Dr. Stern regales us with tales of his dating adventures and love life. How you feel about him after reading how he interacts with various women will make you empathize with his Joe Schmo behavior or make you think his ancestors were the first nebbishes to walk the earth.
 
Toward the end of the book, Dr. Stern asks himself the ultimate question everyone wonders about the field of psychiatry: Is this entire field some kind of made-up sham? It does not have the precision of other medical specialties and largely depends on what the patient answers when the doctor asks, “What do you think?”
 
It’s not for nothing that a favorite line among budding psychiatrists is: “Don’t just sit there. Do nothing.”
 
It’s largely a listening disciple. Does that make it medicine? The job seems impossible, and this memoir does little to convince the reader that, yes, these guys really know what they’re doing. On the contrary, it’s easy to come away from this memoir wondering if, instead of spending all that money on therapy, one might be just as well served heading to a nearby bar to hear the wisdom of barstool gurus.
 
In the end, Stern settles for small victories and rationalizes that whether his patients continue suffering or even die, he can take succor in knowing he helped a little bit. Then again, maybe not. Maybe we require a little more from our doctors. Stern’s growth as a doctor, and as a man, have readers rooting for him and his patients, and ultimately find their own hearts fuller for having taken this journey with him.
 
Committed is an honest and thoughtful portrayal of one person’s journey to becoming a psychiatrist. Committed also features Stern’s genuine struggle with the more controversial treatments and nuanced bioethical issues in the field. In the end, Stern learns his most valuable lessons from listening to his patients.
 
His illusions of the ideal psychiatrist give way and make space for hard-earned truths about connecting and committing with individuals, teaching him how “to purposefully keep moving forward.” At its best, psychiatry’s journey continues to be guided by listening to patients. May this conversation continue.
 
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KIRKUS REVIEW :
 
The highs and lows of a grueling four-year psychiatry residency.
 
As Stern notes in this dynamic debut memoir, though he was armed with the empathetic drive to “become an expert in the human condition,” he was unprepared for the difficult work he would face. After graduating from SUNY Syracuse, he matched with the residency program at Harvard Medical School in 2010.
 
The author writes about how he was intimidated after being paired with classmates from more prestigious medical schools, but as the son of a cardiologist, high expectations were established early, which only added to the pressure to outperform the 14 other residency scholars in his class.
 
After several shaky introductory shifts, Stern found his footing in a work environment characterized by elaborate clinical processes, murky treatment ethics, nagging self-doubt, and sheer physical exhaustion. Eventually, the author got worn down by weeks of consecutive overnight shifts handling the “firestorm” of a full patient caseload in the psych ward and rotation schedules in the emergency department.
 
Nonetheless, Stern remained committed, and he was also able to find romantic fulfillment with a fellow resident, Rachel, who later became his wife. As the author vividly captures the urgency, chaos, and eerie fascination involved with the treatment of mental illness, he also candidly shares numerous patient portraits, which provide some of the most moving and disturbing moments in the book.
 
Stern capably handled patients plagued with severe anorexia, manic depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, but he was still blindsided by some of the unique, situational “stuff we never covered in med school.” The combination of patient case studies and medical trainee journal creates an intense reading experience and an eye-opening appreciation for medical professionals charged with psychiatric care.
 
Residents and those contemplating a career in mental health will find much to glean from this spirited memoir of dedication and dogged determination.
 
Engrossing, indelible, and brimming with genuine humanity.
 
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About the Author:
 
ADAM STERN, MD, is a psychiatrist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He has written extensively about his experience as a physician including in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the American Journal of Psychiatry. He lives with his family near Boston.
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