This chapter explores the significance of the white coat ceremony in medical school, where first year students are bestowed with a short white coat and a stethoscope to symbolize their entry into the medical profession. The speakers discuss the importance of institutional ceremonies in providing a sense of identity and purpose, and advocate for similar ceremonies in other professions.
In the diagnosis of the epidemic of anxiety sweeping through society, the examination has tended to focus on individual risk factors or macro-social trends (like social media and smartphone adoption among teens). But this misses something going on at the intermediary level between individuals and mass society: the state of the institutions that shape so much of our daily life. Curtis is joined by renowned scholar Yuval Levin in exploring the concept of “the anxious institution.” They make the case that institutions both externally cause and internally experience anxiety in fascinating and important ways.