Kindle Notes & Highlights
I told him that during my year in the House of God I’d gotten pretty cynical about medicine, feeling something was missing in my being a doctor, not to mention in my life. “I’ve had enough poodling around in diseased bodies. I can do bodies now. But I never feel I really understand. I want to understand people, that’s all.”
I was to find that Errol—and Win too—had two traits that would prove remarkably useful as they threw drugs into people: unawareness of self, and unawareness of others.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against using medication. I use it, if it’s right to use. But all the studies of compliance show that patients don’t take their drugs fifty percent of the time, and that the only reason they do is if they have a good relationship with their doctor. And guys like Errol are terrible at relationship. Which is one of the two reasons they specialize in drugs. Walk me out.” I followed him outside.
“Talk therapy is dying. The drug cowboys are taking over. They use drugs to stay away from being with people. It’s easier than being human with that kind of suffering. Other than drugs, the only way to make a living as a shrink is to write some bullshit self-help book. I’m thinking of writing one called ‘Anorexia Digest.’ ”
