Samuel Shem

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Samuel Shem ( pseudonym of Stephen Joseph Bergman ; * 1944 in Hudson, New York ) is an American writer and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School . He was best known for the novel The House of God , written under his pseudonym .

Biographical

Bergman comes from a Jewish family. He attended Harvard Medical School in Boston. In 1966 he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University . His practical training as an intern at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital in the early 1970s is the subject of his first novel, The House of God , published in 1978.

Bergman lives in Newton, Massachusetts with his wife, Janet Surrey, a psychologist, and their daughter . Until his retirement he worked as a specialist in psychiatry with a focus on addictions. As a guest lecturer , he teaches at various universities.

Shem describes itself as a typical product of the sixties. His commitment as a writer, speaker and doctor applies to the resistance against dehumanization in modern hospital operations and the medical profession. House of God and Mount Misery are considered realistic fictionalizations of everyday hospital and psychiatry that reflect typical experiences of young doctors in training. As a physician, he takes a relational approach in a critical demarcation from the conception of man in the Freudian tradition.

Works (selection)

  • House of God , OT: The House of God (1978), foreword by John Updike . Translated by Heidrun Adler. Urban & Fischer (1997)
  • Doctor Fine , OT: Fine (1985), transl. Rudolf Hermstein . Urban & Fischer (1999)
  • Mount Misery , OT: Mount Misery (1997), transl. Rudolf Hermstein & Christian Spiel. Droemer Knaur (1998)
  • Alphabets of love , OT: We Have to Talk (1998), co-author Janet Surrey, translator Maren Klostermann, Klett-Cotta Verlag (1999)
  • Orville's Homecoming , OT: Spirit of the Place, transl . Andreas Nohl , Droemer Knaur (2001)
  • Bill W. and Dr. Bob , play, co-writer Janet Surrey, no German transl.
  • At the Heart of the Universe: A Novel , Seven Stories Press, New York (2016), ISBN 978-1-609-80641-5
  • Man's 4th Best Hospital, Berkley (2019)

Radio plays

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Shem, Samuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bergman, Stephen Joseph (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author and psychiatrist
DATE OF BIRTH 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Hudson (New York)