ABSTRACT

In this final volume of his best-selling 'Inner' trilogy, Roger Neighbour explores the relationship between a doctor's professional and private selves. He suggests that the mind of every doctor retains an untrained 'ordinary human being' part - their Inner Physician - which makes an important, though often neglected, contribution to medical practice. This 'Inner Physician', which he also describes as the 'amateur within' or the 'expert minus the expertise', plays a major role in diagnosis and treatment, and is the chief source of insight, empathy and clinical acumen. Roger shows that skilled use of the Inner Physician is one thing that distinguishes the generalist from the specialist.

chapter 1|31 pages

Beginner’s mind

chapter 2|33 pages

A backwards glance

chapter 3|19 pages

Inchworms and also-rans

chapter 4|19 pages

The Medical Gaze

chapter 5|22 pages

The Illness Catastrophe

chapter 6|14 pages

The case for big picture medicine

chapter 7|29 pages

‘What’s the matter?’

chapter 8|33 pages

As long as you think of it

chapter 9|22 pages

Crichton’s switch

chapter 10|38 pages

Through Johari’s window

chapter 11|25 pages

The Greeks had a word for it

chapter 12|20 pages

In praise of innersense