26 Nov / Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training by Adam Stern [in Booklist]
Adam Stern began his Harvard career feeling like an impostor when he was matched into a Harvard Medical School psychiatry residency impeded, he worried, by his upstate-New York medical degree: “I found myself soaring into one of the most prestigious residency programs in the country, but I wouldn’t imagine a scenario that didn’t involve crashing back to earth.” The grueling four-years’ training he reveals here include plenty of crashes – both professional and personal – shared with his class of 15 fellow residents, other colleagues, helpful teachers, beloved mentors, and – perhaps most importantly—the patients he met.
Stern writes and narrates with unadorned honesty as he “learn[s] the meaning of failure and appreciate[s] the preciousness of success.” Amidst the unrelenting exhaustion, lifelong relationships develop – including finding his wife – even as sometimes lives are lost. The strongest moments belong to patients – a collegiate anorexic, a suicidal man with cancer, a nuisance caller who uses the emergency pager when she can’t sleep – who merit his empathic aural attention.
Impostor no more, Stern remains at Harvard as a professor, and is Director of Psychiatry at one of Boston’s top medical centers.
Review: “Media,” Booklist Online, November 24, 2021
Readers: Adult
Published: 2021