Perspective

Melvin Konner, M.D. wrote Becoming a Doctor: A Journey of Initiation in Medical School based on his experiences at Galen Memorial Hospital. He had previously completed a two-year course of study at Flexner Medical School that was affiliated with the hospital. Konner had studied anthropology at Harvard and earned his Ph.D. by the time he was twenty-five. He had done two years of anthropological research in Africa and opted to teach anthropology for six years as a Harvard professor when he became a medical student. He reflected back on his life and could not remember ever not wanting to be a doctor. He considered this continuing late-age desire as proof of his "motivation to study medicine." His Uncle Bobby was a general practitioner in Brooklyn and had an influence on Konner as did Dr. Finkel who was his family doctor as he grew up.

Konner wrote...