The Fourth Year: Highlights and Heroes Summary and Analysis

Entering the fourth year of medical school after his successful "sink-or-swim" third year left Konner with a sense of coasting. He was not yet a doctor although he had the skills and performed many of the critical medical events or at least observed them. The fourth year would facilitate development of skills without direct responsibility and enable the student to take electives, concentrate in a specialty or combine the two. The next year may bring pressures of internship, but the fourth year allowed time to explore, think and consolidate. There were two physicians and a radiation department Konner wanted for elective time.

Konner wanted more work with John Brandt and his approach to radical pharmacology. Konner was influenced by Brandt's insistence on evidence in patient care and psychodynamic interpretation. Konner and...