Customer Reviews

The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I devoured this book of pure inspiration while recovering from my second cancer diagnosis with a 17-month period. As soon as I finished reading it, I wrote to my several oncologists, at three hospitals on 2 continents, to recommed that it be placed in every oncology waiting area and every chemotherapy unit for patients and health professionals alike. Jerome Gropman, M.D. descibes his evolution as a a physican, from his years of training in its illness-detective work and business of interventions to becoming a compassionate, humanistic doctor who is capable of seeing whole lives in his patients. Always and everywhere, in every one, every day, searching for hope: in the body, mind and if there be one, soul or spirit of an individual.

Groopman quotes, "Beware how you take hope away from another human being." Oliver Wendell Holmes, 19th century Boston physician, poet and essayist.

Mainly, this book tells stories of Groopman's extraordianry patients, who, "led ...on a journey of discovery from a point where hope was absent to a place where hope could not be lost. ....learned the difference between true hope and false hope....Because when they held onto hope even when I could not, they survived. nNd one woman of deep faith showed me that even when there is no hope for the body, there is always hope for the soul. Each person helped me see another dimension of the anatomy of hope." from the Introduction

An excellent account of an oncologist's own experience,during his multiple years of training and practice, with a description of actual cases and how the different outcomes of these cases changed the author's approach and understanding of patients with serious and terminal illnesses -mostly cancer-.
This book is the product of the author's emotional journey through understanding how differently patients react to their own diagnoses and circumstances, and why physicians have to treat patients individually, and not as cases of this type or another type of cancer.
It is clear from the stories, that he realized that many patients do not want to hear about statistics, they don't want to know their possibility of survival in 5 years or 10 years in percentages, because all human beings hold on fast to hope, and this is what makes them survive in some incredible cases.
As a physician myself, I recommend this book to all medical students, all students of oncology, and professonals in the field. Please, don't forget that the last thing that a patient loses is hope, and in a background of truthfullness, try to help them hold onto this last resource, which may benefit their immune systems in the struggle against the disease.

Ever since I read this book, I've been recommending it to everyone I know: other cancer patients, my oncologist, the administrator at our local cancer clinic. As a highly respected physician and medical researcher, Groopman is well placed to make the argument he makes here: that a very important part of a doctor's job is to give his/her patients hope--not false hopes grounded in pop psychology, but hope based on medical research. And as someone who once found himself in the patient's shoes, he is also in the perfect position to give hope to others like himself.

Structured around well-told stories (not, as one reviewer put it, "Just a bunch of anekdotes (sic)") of actual patients, the book is very readable--and also very informative. It's "must" reading for any physician or medical student interested in the art and science of healing.

Author and physician Jerome Groopman offers case studies and vignettes of patients battling "hopeless" conditions - usually grave cancers - but who rebound and prevail against great odds, often confounding their doctors. Such case studies are usually dismissed by the medical community with the label of being "anecdotal." Groopman writes like a novelist and the studies are riveting, touching and inspiring.

For a while, a certain unease gnawed at me. Each case study was of patients who survived against great odds. Beyond the rosy happy endings, there was another problem. The undercurrent seemed to be that, if patients didn't thrive, it was their own damn fault for not being hopeful enough - one more way for doctors to make themselves feel better. However, Groopman leavens his "success stories" with at least one that did not involve prevailing over cancer. He has also been in the position of being a patient with an intractable back problem, perhaps giving him a rare crash course in empathy and a first-hand taste of the role of hope.

In his book, "Man's Search for Meaning," Viktor Frankl says something like "Man can endure any what so long as he has a why..." If you have a reason to live and to look forward to something, you can prevail over great odds, whether at Auschwitz or against liver cancer.

This powerful but concise book explores that mind/body connection and is useful for those who are not grappling with life-threatening conditions. Regardless, we all grapple with life.

"The Anatomy of Hope" documents the positive physiological responses evoked by the rays of hope that poke through the gloom.

OK, so hope sounds too pollyanna for "serious medical students and stiff doctors". I'll tell you about hope. It's deeper and more complex than all the so called "only we know what is good for you, you peon." attitudes put together. All I could think about while reading this book was thank God a doctor with deep compassion had the courage to write it. Here we have a doctor who is not afraid to step outside the box to spend years thinking about the single most important part of any illness, in particluar cancer: hope. I've learned a lot about hope. Granted at 20 years old it was probably the last thing I was thinking and probably thought I had all the knowledge I needed. Now at age 62, I have lived longer than expected, and am a living example of hope. I've lived over three years with lung cancer (the last two as stage IV). I found a doctor with great skill whom I admire for his medical knowledge as a great doctor who does in fact treat people everyday with traditional medicine, but every time I am in his presence I feel an energy of profound hope. You can call it whatever "pop" name you want, it just shows you are not really in the trenches. I survived because of my good doctor and because of hope. Near the end of my life, I learned the greatest, most important and enduring things in life are the most simple, yet somehow complex, with hope being at the very top of the list. I can tell by reading Dr Groopman's book that he is a compassionate human being and knows the true meaning of life, and of hope, and was drawn to it by the title: The Anatomy Of Hope. I wish there were more doctors like my doctor, and like Dr Groopman.

In July 1975 Jerome Groopman entered his fourth and final year of medical school at Columbia and joined the surgical team headed by Dr. William Foster. The first patient he encountered was an Orthodox Jewish woman who had lost over one- hundred members of her family in the Holocaust. She was suffering from a very advanced case of breast- cancer. In speaking with her Groopman learned that she had been ill for a long time, had felt pain for a long time but had reported it to no one. She was reluctant to tell him why, but at some point in the course of the treatment she let him know the answer. She felt herself to be a sinner because of untoward thoughts towards her employer. She felt that her illness was a punishment and therefore deserving. Despite her having three children and a husband she was living in total hopelessness. She resisted treatment and in a relatively short time , died.
This incident raised in Groopman's mind the whole question of patients' attitudes, and what part they have in the physician's treatment. He began to sense that this was a neglected area of study and that physicians were not properly trained in fully understanding their patients.
In another case- history later on Groopman working as an assistant for a dedicated physician saw that his employer's technique was to conceal from terminal patients the bitter truth- in order to let them enjoy as best they could the remaining time left. However in one instance concerning a mother and daughter in which the mother was terminally ill, the concealing of the information turned out to be insulting and humiliating to the daughter. Groopman understood from this incident that coddling patients with false hope was also a mistaken way.
In still another incident Groopman saw a doctor- friend of his who all the physicians on the case advised to no longer take radiation treatments as his situation was completely hopeless. The patient insisted on continuing with the treatment and had a remarkable recovery , a 'cure' in which the cancer completely left his system.
In still another case- history Groopman speaks about a courageous patient who without fear rationally evaluated her situation at every stage, was totally realistic in her evaluations, had hope for her recovery and also because of her religious faith, hope for the world- to- come.
In another important instance Groopman talks about his own twenty - year struggle with pain and how he was cured not by a medical treatment but by the wise recommendation of a physician who taught him to move in spite of and against the pain.
All these cases taken together make for complicated understanding of the relation of 'hope ' to 'recovery'- and are valuable not so much because of pointing to some simplistic conclusion and moral but because they show not only the complexity , difficulty, of treating and contending with serious illness but also how central human attitude and wisdom is in facing life's most difficult tests.

I read this book with great interest and attention. I was appreciative of both the writing skills of Dr. Groopman and the contents of his book. Having dealt with serious disease in our family, I found Groopman's personal experiences, growth, and insights to be helpful and enlightening. He shared very clearly the doctor's side of a patient's illness, something one's own doctor rarely shares. I appeciated his candidness and his realization that doctors and patients need to be honest allies in treating sickness. I was touched by the courage of his patients. I learned about the biology of hope and found that illuminating, because it explained my own experience, as well as those he discribed, showing how hope can heal or strengthen, and while not magic can be very powerful when illness changes everything. Reading his book was very important to me.

This is a powerful and illuminating book. It's aim is to reveal and chacaterise the place that hope has in giving patients the will to put themselves through sometims painful therapy or to survive the dark times of illness; to keep going against odds. Groopman is a very intelligent, observant, self-reflecting practitioner, and he has learnt deeply from his mistakes and successes. The book is beautifully written, and is full of gripping and insightful stories about patients and doctors. It's a stirring call for medical practice which goes well beyond mere evidence and professional, technical expertise - embracing the wholeness of the patient in all its complexity.

As a soon to be medical student, I've been devouring Groopman's essays in The New Yorker, and decided to read this book on a long plane ride. I read through the night, forcing myself to put the book down for a few hours of shut-eye. Groopman writes with gripping prose, and he manages to make the book accessible to your average reader who may not be knowledgable in the health field while not dumbing it down.

The book is roughly divided into two parts. The first half is a neat compilation of anecdotes based on his experience treating patients with blood diseases and cancers, as well as his own experience with back surgery. Towards the end of each chapter, he weaves in a concise but well thought out reflection on how hope manifested itself in that particular scenario, and what he was able to learn about the role of hope in both the physician and patient experience.

The latter part of the book was a bit less anecdote-focused and more about Groopman's exploration of the biology of hope. Through interviews with top scientists who study the biological link between emotion and biological responses, and by presenting the most relevant studies on the matter (for example, he addresses the function of placebo medicine in building hope and consequently positive health outcomes) Groopman relates the known scientific links between emotion/hope and physiological response back to a number of his previously related anecdotes. I found the second part of the book to be a bit slower, but then again, I was going on an hour of sleep at that point.

Overall, I strongly recommend this book to anybody in the health field, including pre-meds, as well as to those suffering from serious illness. For me, at least, this book marked the first time I ever seriously contemplated the role of hope in my health and well-being. Groopman impressively avoids cliches, and his honest and self-reflective approach to medicine and health is refreshing and inspiring.

I have read groopman's essays in the new yorker as insightful; it is helpful to read from an obvious cutting edge scientific medical researcher who shares what it is to be a physician with the laity. I have been referring this to many of my patients who are contemplating spine surgery Understanding what are reasonable goals and the general lack of understanding of what causes spine pain is essential for patients who are often misled by oveerzealous promoters of techniques ; Dr Groopman's polemic against the spine industry could also be used in other areas given the big business of pharma as well as implant manufacturers.\
I encourage thinking people and people going through life changing care for medical problems to read his texts