Samuel Shem is the pen-name of the American psychiatrist Stephen Joseph Bergman . His main works are The House of God and Mount Misery, both fictional but close-to-real first-hand descriptions of the training of doctors in the United States.
Bergman was a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford in 1966, and was tutored by Denis Noble FRS, cardiac physiologist and later head of the Oxford Cardiac Electrophysiology Group. In an address to Dr. Noble's retirement party at Balliol, he related that Denis Noble's response to Bergman's attempt to become a writer was to ply him with copious sherry. He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Medical SchoolHe was an intern at Beth Israel Hospital which inspired the book The House of God.
As of 2017 Bergman is a member of the faculty of the New York University School of Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center.
Shem's play Bill W. and Dr. Bob had an Off Broadway run at New World Stage in New York City. It ran for 132 performances and closed on June 10, 2007. The New York Times called it "An insightful new play."
His works are:
The House of God
Fine
Mount Misery
Bill W. and Dr. Bob
We Have to Talk: Healing Dialogues Between Men and Women
The Spirit of the Place
At the Heart of the Universe
Man's 4th Best Hospital
Wikipedia
“The patient is the one with the disease”
Source: The House of God
