Samuel Shem

Samuel Shem is the pen-name of the psychiatrist Stephen J. Bergman (1944-). 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 is as of 2005 professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, division of addictions. He lives in Newton, Massachusetts with his wife Janet Surrey and a daughter.

His works are:

• The House of God (1978)
• Fine (1985)
• Mount Misery (ISBN 0804115559)
• Bill W. and Dr. Bob (play on alcoholism and the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous - Bill W. and Dr Bob, 1990)
• We Have to Talk: Healing Dialogues Between Men and Women (with Janet Surrey, 1999, ISBN 0465091148)

References

• Shem S. Fiction as Resistance. Ann Intern Med 2002;137:934-7. PDF. PMID 12459000.