Stories for a humanistic medicine

In this first article for the feature Humanism and Medicine, Rita Charon introduces an excerpt from Richard Selzer's introduction to his latest book, The Doctor Stories. In her introductory and concluding comments, Charon contemplates the role of stories in medicine and how both truth and healing can be found in both listening to and telling stories. In the excerpt presented, surgeon and writer Selzer muses on his twin crafts. As a writer, Selzer can fully appreciate that which he witnesses in his life as a doctor. His ruminations on his own dual citizenship suggests that all doctors, perhaps, can deepen their commitment to medicine, to their patients, and to themselves by strengthening their capacity to behold their patients and to grasp their predicaments. Selzer also traces his origins and, by implication, projects his future. As practicing physicians and medical educators, readers of Academic medicine might be inspired to do the same.