The Fate Of Idealism Analysis

As stated by Paul Starr, “From the Jacksonian period through the end of the nineteenth century, a medical career did not carry the prestige and guaranteed security it does now” (82). Nonetheless, throughout history we have seen the shift, now more and more students are aspiring to become doctors. Those pursuing such occupation view that profession not as a symbol of prestige and wealth, but also as a way to give back and help those in need. Howard S. Becker and Blanche Geer, in The Fate Of Idealism in Medical School, describe the kind of idealism that characterizes the medical freshmen students, to examine their development over the four years of medical training. With that in mind, Becker and Geer (2010) state, “The medical students enter …show more content…
They learn about emotional detachment, and objectification, they also learn that they have to be strategic when it comes to selecting what they have to know for examinations, rather than what they will need (Becker and Geer). What this means, is that students learn to pay more emphasis to memorization rather than actually learning the material, and this has an effect on the patient care. It is through this selectivity that students only learn what is expected from them, or what will be in exams rather seeing that knowledge as something that can be applied towards a patient. In addition, it is that detachment from the patients that also affects the patient-doctor interactions. It is the socialization that allows physicians to see patient as nothing more than just an organ, a body part. The documentary “Doctors in the Making,” Tom one of the students that deals with autopsy and cadavers, view the parts of a boy as a “gift to medicine,” because they it is through that they get to expand their knowledge. Nonetheless, It is the socialization of physicians, that detachment from their patients that allows them to perform their job