How Not to Be A Doctor is a selection of essays by John Launer, doctor and medical columnist, on the practice and teaching of medicine. Taken together, they set out an argument that being a doctor - a real doctor - should mean being able to draw on every aspect of yourself, your interests, and your experiences, however remote these may seem from the medical task of the moment. Originating from the popular columns Launer has written for medical journals over his career, the more than fifty essays cover a range of topics including music, poetry, literature, and psychoanalysis, as well as contemporary medical politics and the personal experiences of being a doctor. From lessons on what they don't teach you in medical school, to a story of the imagined conversation between two prehistoric medical men, to the author's poignant account of being a patient himself as he received treatment for a life-threatening illness, the essays in How Not to Be a Doctor combine erudition with humour, candour, and the human touch. They show how, in medicine, you cannot separate personal experiences from professional ones, in short stories and reflections that will inform and entertain readers on both ends of the stethoscope.

Author Biography

JOHN LAUNER is a doctor, medical educator and writer known in the UK and internationally for his work on consultation skills, clinical supervision and narrative-based medicine. After graduating from Cambridge with an MA in English Literature, he studied medicine and became a Member of the Royal College of Practitioners in 1983. He has contributed columns and articles to periodicals and journals for over thirty years, including the BMJ, PMJ, Times Educational Supplement, Times Health Supplement and the Daily Mail. He has worked both as a GP and consultant and practices medicine in London.