I have been very fortunate in the support that I have received from patients, friends, family, colleagues, and various experts and specialists whom I have consulted in the research and writing of The Human Kind.
My partners in practice, Doctors Aileen Telfer and Stuart Blake, have been patient and generous, both with the enormous amounts of time away from my medical duties that they have permitted me, but also with putting up for years with my many obsessions, rants and hobby-horses, which I’m sure must be trying. It’s not possible to practise medicine happily, without kind, trusted, critical colleagues watching your back.
Where an individual patient might recognise something of their own self or their story in an account, I have taken care to ask their permission, discussed my intentions with them, and have been deeply grateful for their openness and willing participation. The details and trajectories of the emergent characters have all been altered, and altered again, to make them unidentifiable to a third person.
I would particularly like to mention Mrs J.A. whose kind and intelligent reading of some of my material pointed a way forward for me at a difficult time.
Three Views of a Mountain continues to hang on my wall, and I would like to thank its painter yet again for this gift.
As a child, the adults in our lives give us permission for what we might do or become. I would like to thank my uncle Dr Morrison Dorward for his lifelong example of what compassion, care, and love, lived, might look like.
I was a terrible student and medical trainee, and I would like to thank again those teachers who had the patience and kindness to soldier on with my medical education. In particular, Dr Iain Lamb, to whom I owe a debt for much of what I think is positive in my practice as a generalist, and as a medical teacher. When I speak with doctors who struggle (we all sometimes struggle…), it’s his voice that I hear.
When I discovered, late, that medicine has an indispensable ethical and philosophical dimension, it changed my trajectory, and created in me a deep and sustained fascination which has enlivened my career and made me a better doctor. I would like to thank Prof. Raanon Gillon for years of friendship, education, support and fun. His advice has always mattered to me, and it was he who started me out on this journey.
I would have been quite unable to begin to write The Human Kind without the friendship of Dr Gavin Francis. He was there right at the beginning of the project, and was the first to read the finished manuscript. I can’t thank him enough for his support. Our best friends make us more than we could otherwise be.
I would like to thank Dr Thomas Williams who read and corrected every chapter, who has kept me straight and sane, and whose advice and friendship have sustained me for years. Responsibility for any errors of fact, taste or style in the final work remains his.
Prof. Andrew Canessa has been an unfailing source of friendship and solace for decades – whether one is stuck on a rock face, or stumped by a recipe, his words are always well judged and feedback invaluable. My Jacha Chuymani.
Dr Douglas Dorward helped me more than he knows by listening to me talk and commenting on the material that he kindly read for me.
Mark Halliley offered me detailed comments on chapters at an early stage; his thoughts were spot on, and his support immensely encouraging at a time when I needed it.
Thank you to Sophie Balhetchet whose concise, perceptive editorial advice was hugely valued. Collaborating on projects with Sophie has always been a privilege and a joy.
I would like to thank Ruth Mackenzie again, for her kind encouragement, and for the use of her flat to write: hers has the best view in all Amsterdam.
Andrea Joyce and Andrew Dorward must have read thousands of pages of my work over the years. Every writer needs kind, critical readers, every person needs the love of kind and critical friends – so thank you again for so many years of both.
Frank Wintle has been the greatest of readers and friends. I’m grateful for his time and careful critical feedback. He is also the most joyous holiday/writing/cooking companion a person might ever wish for.
I’m grateful to Dr Lizzie Wastnedge for her reading of several chapters and for her valuable comments and encouragement.
Dr John Dunn is a great teaching colleague and a friend, a brilliant medical educator, and fantastic advocate on behalf of good medicine. I was grateful for the time he took over the material that I asked him to read, and for his perceptive and helpful comments.
Prof. Frank Cogliano is a great host, a wonderful story teller and a good friend. I was encouraged and moved by his kind response to the chapter that I asked him to read.
Thank you also to David Scott for the long walks, good company, and for listening to me talk, and talk, for years.
Several specialists in their fields of medicine and philosophy have been generous with their time, advice and support for The Human Kind:
My friend Dr Tim Dalkin was helpful in taking the time to tactfully correct my misunderstandings around schizophrenia and the Mental Health Act. The residual errors and inaccuracies are mine.
Dr Jon Stone was generous with his time, knowledge and advice, and I am grateful to him for both taking my thoughts seriously, and for encouraging me to try them out on his clinical colleagues, whose feedback and comments were gracious and helpful.
Dr Ivan Marples kindly allowed me time and space to discuss with him my thoughts, and was, in hindsight, incredibly tolerant and decent in his response to my criticisms of the medical model for chronic pain and its treatment.
The philosopher in the attic room in Glasgow is Dr David Bain. I am grateful to him for his kind hospitality, for quietly seeing through the nonsense, and then finding and engaging with what was interesting about my argument. His input was enormously encouraging. As I say, every doctor feeling paralysed by the incoherencies in their field should have a generous philosopher with whom to consult.
In my few years of knowing Prof. Tim Engstrom, he has been an enormous source of encouragement and clarity: he has helped me with several chapters and I have valued his broad cultural knowledge and critical responses, as well as enjoying walks, conversation, book recommendations and gracious company.
My agent Jenny Brown at JBA could not have been more receptive, open and helpful, offering support, practical advice and encouragement at exactly those moments when I have needed it.
Charlotte Croft has been an absolute delight to work with in the preparation of The Human Kind. I am grateful to her and to all of the staff at Bloomsbury who have been involved in the project, for their engagement, encouragement and trust.
Finally, I would like to thank my partner Deborah, for everything, and our two boys, Jack and Jamie, for helping to make life so precious.