Samuel Shem

Samuel Shem (pseudonym of Stephen Joseph Bergman, 1944) is an American author and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He became known through the written under his pseudonym novel The House of God.

Biographical

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

Bergman lives with his wife, Janet Surrey, a psychologist, and his daughter in Newton (Massachusetts ). He worked until his retirement as a consultant psychiatrist with a focus on addictions. As a guest lecturer, he has taught at various universities.

Shem describes himself as a typical product of the sixties. His commitment as a writer, speaker and physician applies resistance to the dehumanization in modern hospital operations and medical profession. House of God and Mount Misery are considered realistic fictionalizations the clinic and psychiatry everyday life, reflect the typical experiences of young doctors in training. As a physician, he represents a relational approach to critical distinction to the human being the Freudian tradition.

Works (selection)

• House of God, OT: The House of God ( 1978), Preface John Updike. Translator's Heidrun Adler. Urban & Fischer ( 1997)
• Doctor Fine, OT: Fine ( 1985), Translator Rudolf Hermstein. Urban & Fischer ( 1999)
• Mount Misery, OT: Mount Misery (1997), Translator Rudolf Hermstein & Christian game. Earthscan (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, Translator Andreas Nohl, Earthscan (2001)
• Bill W. and Dr. Bob, play, co-author Janet Surrey, no German translator's