Key Words: Literature and Psychiatry TO THE EDITOR: The letters about psychiatrists as major authors (1,2), reacting to an excellent article on poetry by Robert Pinsky (3), seem to be misguided in several aspects. To begin with, psychiatry is a fairly young specialty compared with the rest of medicine. How many psychiatrists were around at the time Anton Chekhov wrote his plays and short stories? Not many. Overall, the number of physicians who authored "major literature" (whatever it meansnot everybody would consider work by practicing and nonpracticing physicians Archibald J. Cronin, Michael Crichton, or Walker Percy major literature) has not been large, and psychiatry is not the largest medical specialty. Reliable numbers for physician-authors and psychiatrist-authors do not exist, so we do not know how comparable the number of psychiatrists who authored "minor" or "major" literature is to the number for the rest of medicine. Authorship also takes many forms. How many of us know that a well-known present-day political columnist (not a "major" author, though), Charles Krauthammer, authored a classic article on secondary mania (4) in his previous career? Or how many consider the work of psychiatristminister M. Scott Peck (The Road Less Traveled) major literature? This
Psychiatry and "Major Literature"
Abstract
Key Words: Literature and Psychiatry TO THE EDITOR: The letters about psychiatrists as major authors (1,2), reacting to an excellent article on poetry by Robert Pinsky (3), seem to be misguided in several aspects. To begin with, psychiatry is a fairly young specialty compared with the rest of medicine. How many psychiatrists were around at the time Anton Chekhov wrote his plays and short stories? Not many. Overall, the number of physicians who authored "major literature" (whatever it meansnot everybody would consider work by practicing and nonpracticing physicians Archibald J. Cronin, Michael Crichton, or Walker Percy major literature) has not been large, and psychiatry is not the largest medical specialty. Reliable numbers for physician-authors and psychiatrist-authors do not exist, so we do not know how comparable the number of psychiatrists who authored "minor" or "major" literature is to the number for the rest of medicine. Authorship also takes many forms. How many of us know that a well-known present-day political columnist (not a "major" author, though), Charles Krauthammer, authored a classic article on secondary mania (4) in his previous career? Or how many consider the work of psychiatristminister M. Scott Peck (The Road Less Traveled) major literature? ThisPreview Only. This article cannot be rented because we do not currently have permission from the publisher.
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Psychiatry and "Major Literature"
Balon, Richard
Follow Academic Psychiatry
, Volume 26 (3): 219
American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc (Journal) – Sep 1, 2002
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