Also Human : The Inner Lives of Doctors

For anyone trying to understand the impossible strains placed on our medical workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, this book is indispensable.

Doctors are the people we turn to in our darkest moments. We trust them with our lives. But what does that stress do to a person? What does it take to confront death, disease, distress and suffering every day? To work in a healthcare system stretched to breaking point? To make decisions that will change lives – or possibly end them? And how do doctors cope with their own questions and fears, when they are expected to have all the answers? Caroline Elton is a psychologist who, for two decades, has specialised in helping doctors: the obstetrician whose own fertility treatment failed; the trainee oncologist struggling to face patients with the disease that killed her father; the brilliant neurosurgeon whose career stalled in an environment hostile to women; and many more. Drawing on extraordinary case studies and decades of work supporting clinicians, Also Human presents a provocative, perceptive and deeply humane examination of the modern medical profession. 

‘A furious dispatch from the front line of the hospital system.’ THE TIMES, Book of the Week 

‘Written with perceptive sympathy for the wounded healer, it is necessary reading for both doctors and patients.’ HILARY MANTEL

‘Crucial and timely.’ ATUL GAWANDE

‘Fascinating and troubling. Read it and weep.’ SUSIE ORBACH

‘Haunting, beautiful and urgent.’ JOHANN HARI

‘At the heart of this book is the problem of how emotional resilience can be identified in prospective doctors and strengthened in practising doctors. We are fallible human beings, not omniscient gods.’ HENRY MARSH, SUNDAY TIMES