The Inner Lives of Doctors

Also Human

A groundbreaking examination of the pain, pressure and joy of medical work by a psychologist known as the 'doctor's doctor'

All agree there is a crisis in health care, but this book looks behind the headlines and tots up the human cost of a flawed system. Written with perceptive sympathy for the wounded healer, it is necessary reading for both doctors and patients.

With a compassionate eye for detail and a deep understanding of just how the systems we train and practice in as doctors can fail us as human beings, Caroline Elton offers a crucial and timely reminder that doctors are Also Human.

This furious dispatch from the front line of the hospital system argues we must care for our medics more... a book that may have found its popular moment.

Caroline Elton is an occupational psychologist who has worked with medics for more than 20 years. She is uniquely qualified to comment... I’d be surprised if anyone who reads it will ever look at doctors in the same light again.

Also Human describes, through a series of case histories... the emotional and psychological problems that doctors can face. The interesting question... is how doctors overcome such feelings and carry on working, despite often having to witness, and sometimes cause, terrible suffering for our patients. At the heart of this book is the problem of how emotional resilience can be identified in prospective doctors and strengthened in practising doctors. We are fallible human beings, not omniscient gods.

Her descriptions of the psychological forces underlying the way doctors act … is fascinating, with succinct explorations.

Fascinating, troubling, educative. Read Elton and weep and then think, argue and implement what needs doing to support not squander our medics.

Have you ever wondered what your doctor thinks and feels once you walk out the door? Also Human is the uncensored answer - and it’s haunting, beautiful, and urgent for all of us to know.

An important, necessary book. Also Human shows that doctors are indeed all so human.

Doctors are people, too. They possess the same virtues, faults, fears and desires of the rest of us but it's easy for patients to forget this obvious truth. Caroline Elton's revelatory, sometimes disturbing, book, is a welcome reminder of this. For doctors and patients alike, this book is required reading.

A shocking indictment of a system of training and supervision that ought to have gone out of fashion and use decades ago. Caroline Elton's incisive prose, and her impatience with the way people display prejudice and poor practice in front of her makes for very good, if highly disturbing, reading. I was horrified by this book, but so glad she has written it.

Shocking… a graphic exposé of the exhaustion, depression, and stress among doctors and it has sent shock waves across the health services.

Caroline Elton was born in north London, the youngest child after her sister Liz and their older brother, Lionel, who was autistic. Originally trained as a teacher, she changed career direction and for the past 25 years has worked as a psychologist who specialises in supporting medical students and doctors. The author of Also Human: The Inner Lives of Doctors, Caroline was appointed as Associate Professor/Senior Adviser at Norwich Medical school in 2022. She is married, with three children, and still lives in north London.

For anyone trying to understand the impossible strains placed on our medical workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, this book is indispensable. 
_____________________________ 
'A furious dispatch from the front line of the hospital system.' THE TIMES, Book of the Week 
_____________________________ 
Doctors are the people we turn to in our darkest moments. We trust them with our lives. But what does that stress do to a person? 
 
What does it take to confront death, disease, distress and suffering every day? To work in a healthcare system stretched to breaking point? To make decisions that will change lives – or possibly end them? And how do doctors cope with their own questions and fears, when they are expected to have all the answers? 
 
Caroline Elton is a psychologist who, for two decades, has specialised in helping doctors: the obstetrician whose own fertility treatment failed; the trainee oncologist struggling to face patients with the disease that killed her father; the brilliant neurosurgeon whose career stalled in an environment hostile to women; and many more. 
 
Drawing on extraordinary case studies and decades of work supporting clinicians, Also Human presents a provocative, perceptive and deeply humane examination of the modern medical profession. 
_____________________________ 
'Written with perceptive sympathy for the wounded healer, it is necessary reading for both doctors and patients.' HILARY MANTEL 
 
'Crucial and timely.' ATUL GAWANDE 
 
'Fascinating and troubling. Read it and weep.' SUSIE ORBACH 
 
'Haunting, beautiful and urgent.' JOHANN HARI 
 
'At the heart of this book is the problem of how emotional resilience can be identified in prospective doctors and strengthened in practising doctors. We are fallible human beings, not omniscient gods.' HENRY MARSH, SUNDAY TIMES

Caroline Elton

A beautiful, bracing gem of a book, quite unlike any other family memoir I’ve ever read. Candid and tender in equal measure, incredibly moving but also lucid and life affirming, this is such an important book about familial love, about where and how it meets the imperfect world outside. Gripping too. Even though technically one knows from the outset what is going to happen, I found it hard to put down. By the closing pages, I felt I had grown to love Lionel too and that I would never forget him. Looking After is a triumph.

Polly Morland, author of A FORTUNATE WOMAN

Beautifully written, erudite and important, Dr Caroline Elton writes as a psychologist second, sister first - which is exactly right. Looking After is a love letter to an autistic brother and to family itself, and a reminder of the power of empathy to save lives.

Christie Watson, author of MORAL INJURIES

A sister’s loving tribute and a powerful call for compassionate change

A book that deserves a wide readership. Lionel’s story sucked me in straight away, and held me captive to the very last page. Wise, compassionate and compellingly told

A Portrait of My Autistic Brother

Meet Lionel, Caroline’s older brother. Born in the late 1940s, when little was known about autism, Lionel was considered a peculiarity. From the beginning, he was a silent child, oblivious to the people around him and intent only on playing with his toy trucks. By the time he turned four, doctors declared him ineducable and advised that he be institutionalised – a shockingly standard practise at the time. 
 
No one could have predicted that Lionel would go onto music college and find his place in the world. With the help of his mother – who refused to send him away – Lionel lived a life that was certainly unusual but never dull. He had perfect pitch, could multiply three-figure numbers in his head, or work out which day of the week you were born on, the instant you told him your birthday. 
 
But when Lionel’s mother dies, and shortly after he is diagnosed with cancer, his two sisters struggle to fill the void – to become Lionel’s caretaker and support him as they had promised their mother. Looking After is both a portrait of one autistic man's remarkable life, and a heart-rending story of how one family learnt to care for each other, to deal with loss and to be by each other’s side at the very end.

Caroline Elton

Praise for Looking After

A beautiful, bracing gem of a book, quite unlike any other family memoir I’ve ever read. Candid and tender in equal measure, incredibly moving but also lucid and life affirming, this is such an important book about ...

Beautifully written, erudite and important, Dr Caroline Elton writes as a psychologist second, sister first - which is exactly right. Looking After is a love letter to an autistic brother and to family itself ...

A sister’s loving tribute and a powerful call for compassionate change

A beautiful, bracing gem of a book, quite unlike any other family memoir I’ve ever read. Candid and tender in equal measure, incredibly moving but also lucid and life affirming, this is such an important book about ...

Beautifully written, erudite and important, Dr Caroline Elton writes as a psychologist second, sister first - which is exactly right. Looking After is a love letter to an autistic brother and to family itself ...

A sister’s loving tribute and a powerful call for compassionate change

A beautiful, bracing gem of a book, quite unlike any other family memoir I’ve ever read. Candid and tender in equal measure, incredibly moving but also lucid and life affirming, this is such an important book about ...

Beautifully written, erudite and important, Dr Caroline Elton writes as a psychologist second, sister first - which is exactly right. Looking After is a love letter to an autistic brother and to family itself ...

A sister’s loving tribute and a powerful call for compassionate change

Books by Caroline Elton

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter