The very title of Jerome Groopman's new book, How Doctors Think, gave me pause. Do doctors think, given the crazy economic pressures they operate under these days? Do other professions think? Consultants? Managers? Does anyone really think anymore -- or do we all just react?

Groopman is a thinker, a reflective actor. He does think about what he is doing, what his colleagues are doing and thinking, and what it all means. This book is a collection of short pieces, all of interest, based on real cases in which Dr. Groopman participated. This word, participate, is at the heart of what the good doctor is getting at. He focuses on what physicians actually do, and what they should do, when working with patients. What they should do most of all, he advocates, is listen to patients. Amid all the technologies, procedures, and processes doctors work with nowadays, that's almost revolutionary.

This point is also mixed with an allied one: the role of emotions in medical work. It's a subject Groopman explores with real emotion. And the last big lesson in this book is the value placed on how the patients present themselves and their problems. How patients tell their stories, Groopman shows, is crucial. We all organize our lives into stories, but the need of many medical systems to reduce the stories to mere facts deprives physicians of a valuable source of insight into what could be troubling the patient. The longer I live, the more the truth of stories becomes more and more real to me. It’s the way we live and make sense of our lives, either stories we create or those we adopt from whatever source we have at our command.

This is a wise and humane book. Managers will learn much here on how they can work with employees, how they can better understand their own lives, and what are the truly enduring tools we all have at our disposal.

RECOMMENDED READING:
How Doctors Think (Hardcover)