Keeper of the Stories

In The Keeper of the Stories, I describe the devolution of the doctor-patient relationship through the lens of my career in medicine, showing how the value of intense listening, and a strong personal connection with patients, has been replaced by a system that treats doctors and patients as impersonal cogs in a vast medical machine designed to maximize profits for hospitals and insurance companies. Now, with no time to listen, doctors today are deprived of the subtle cues and relevant information that can be gathered about patients from hearing details of their life. Listening is especially important for patients who are elderly, infirm, or mentally illthose marginalized and vulnerable to the impersonal forces of a health-care system that sees them as potential expenses, not human beings. In the book, I present some of these stories, gathered to illustrate the surprising ways personal narrative can inform a doctors treatment or simply unburden a patient of painful memories. The fascinating narratives describe a diverse range of experience from survivors of horrors like the Holocaust to witnesses to major events in history. They are a testament to the remarkable lives we all lead.