Analysis Of Atul, Gawande's Why Doctors Fail

In this case, Kaysen’s psychotherapist had a brief conversation with her about her bad habits and scrutinizes her on her life choices. He talks to her based on something as superficial as her pimple with a surly comment. “‘Picking at yourself,’ he repeated, He popped out from behind his desk and lunged toward me” (Kaysen 7). He refers to her pimple as to her picking at herself emotionally which was misreading the situation completely. First of all, professional psychotherapists do not lunge towards their patients that is extremely unprofessional and off putting for most patients. Second, the therapist could not even respect her uncommitment and obvious apprehension of wanting her rest, or vacation at the asylum. This is based on her decision

“ I did not mention that I’d never seen that doctor before, that he decided to put me away after only fifteen minutes” ( Kaysen 39). Most diagnosis takes at least two hours so the therapist can make an accurate diagnosis about the patient’s psyche. However, in this case, the diagnosis took fifteen minutes. In Atul, Gawande’s, Why Doctors Fail, he elaborates on the three main reasons why doctors fail. Many times doctors only go off the hard evidence provided by the patient how they look physically rather than internally. This is what Kaysen’s psychotherapist did he analyzed her based on one superficiality of how she looked and concluded she must be picking on herself in the inside. “A doctor is often limited in their experience and knowledge this accounts as to why doctors are often mistaken two-thirds of the time, leaving them to get their diagnosing right only thirty-three percent part of the time (Why Doctors Fail). We also must keep in mind that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is constantly changing even today. Yet in the sixties, all women were expected to have identical

Kaysen says she only slept with a few boys, but Kaysen argues, “ And the definition of the other ( casual sex) is in the eye of the beholder. How many girls do you think a seventeen- year- old boy would have to screw to earn the label ‘compulsively promiscuous’?.. Probably in the fifteen- twenty range would be my guess- if they ever put that label on boys , which I do not recall their doing” ( Kaysen 158). Kaysen is pointing out how some of theses “mental disorders” were specifically targeted at women who did not comply to the sixties version of what a woman was suppose to be then they could be subject to these “ mental