ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author suggests that the physicians’ interactions with patients offer them insights into who they are as people, what leads to happiness, and how tenuous our hold on security and happiness is. Years of conversations with patients about their illnesses and their lives show physicians that vulnerability, whether it is due to illness, financial stresses, or personal loss, is not the exception but the rule. Very few professions, other than medicine, allow such an unguarded view into the most private parts of people's lives and thoughts, and few offer as much opportunity to learn and to help. It is a tremendous privilege and responsibility. Atul Gawande and Rita Charon, two physicians who write about the practice of medicine, advise medical students to write about their experiences in medicine.
