Product Description

Autobiographical reflections and parables from the noted surgeon and author--in turn grimly humorous, painful, and inspirational--articulate the lessons to be learned during an internship in surgery.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #493546 in Books
• Published on: 1998-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Customer Reviews

Good but not great. Score: 7
Under the old Amazon.com ranking system, I would give this book a seven on a ten point scale. As a fellow surgeon who enjoys Selzer's writings, I thought this was a good, yet not great collection of ruminations. Some of the chapters were quite touching, some were funny, and some were quite plain. A few actually suffered from Selzer's exuberant imagination as he tried to stuff meaning and metaphor into patients' stories that didn't fit. Taking it all together, I'm glad I bought it, but I liked his book Mortal Lessons much better.

For anyone in the human 'helps' professions
This book delivers a knockout punch of genuine compassion. Teachers, ministers, politicians; even peace officers can find value in these writings. Doctors are not healers, but servants. Dr. Selzer knew the meaning of humility.

Selzer prepares medical hopefuls for the art of surgery.
Richard Selzer prepares those with an interest in surgery, specifically medical hopefuls, for the science of medicine through personal experiences that are shared with the reader in Letters to a Young Doctor. He shows that surgery, or being a doctor on a whole can have its days of redemption and it's times of tragedy. Selzer uses emotions to create an emotional bond between the reader, the writer, and the patients. Personal testimony of specific examples, tied in with metaphors, comparisons, and imagery, prepare the reader for what he/she must face in the future as a particepent in the field of medicine. The book is organized into 23 different stories and experiences used by Selzer to prepare medical students with what they will encounter as doctors/surgeons. This also includes 5 letters written specifically to the students of surgery in first person viewpoint. These divided sections of the book hold the same ideas, but are presented in different a manner each. One part might discuss the impact being a doctor may have on society. Another might focus on the aspects in specific, such as the respect one must hold for the tools used in surgery. But all these parts create a whole idea, that being a doctor has its success by in accompanied by the horrors. And this prepares medical students for the life of a surgeon. That is the beauty of Selzer's work. In preparing the young medical world for the future of which they wish to experience as doctors, Richard Selzer pushes the dismay and prosperity of surgery and being a doctor, a healer, into the light. He shares through personal experiences the emotions felt day to day. Selzer uses comparisons to support the specific examples and imagery to support the comparisons. He is thorough in his work and leaves an impression on his audience, the medical hopefuls of the world. The impact he has creates an effect that, in turn, touches everyone.