Searching for Medicine’s Soul

Dr. Paul McHugh joins Aaron to discuss the purpose of psychiatry and psychiatric overreach in medicine. Dr. Paul R. McHugh is University Distinguished Service Professor in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he served as Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1975 to 2001. In a distinguished career that began with his training at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Dr. McHugh has taught at Cornell, the University of Oregon, and since 1975 at Johns Hopkins. He was the co-creator of the Mini Mental States Examination, one of the most widely used tests of cognitive function, and he sponsored the work that resulted in The 36-Hour Day, a bestselling guide for families and caregivers of patients with Alzheimer’s and other dementia conditions. In the 1980s and 1990s, Dr. McHugh and Dr. Phillip R. Slavney published The Perspectives of Psychiatry and Psychiatric Polarities, which may be said to have embodied the tenets of the influential “Hopkins School” of the discipline. For the wider public, Dr. McHugh has published on psychiatry — both its findings and its failings — in The American Scholar, First Things, Commentary, Public Discourse, the Weekly Standard, and The New Atlantis. His books for general readers are The Mind Has Mountains (2006), a collection of his essays, and Try to Remember (2008), which concerns his role in debunking the “recovered memory” fad in psychotherapy. In 2015, the Paul McHugh Program for Human Flourishing was established in the Johns Hopkins Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Please visit the Ethics and Public Policy's Bioethics and American Democracy program page for more information.

Ross Douthat joins Aaron to discuss his new book: The Deep Places. They address the difficulties of living with chronic illness and the weaknesses of modern medicine and the medical establishment. Ross Douthat joined The New York Times as an Opinion columnist in April 2009. Previously, he was a senior editor at The Atlantic and a blogger on its website. He is the author of The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery, which was published in October 2021. His other books include To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism, published in 2018; Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics (2012); Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class (2005); The Decadent Society (2020); and, with Reihan Salam, Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream (2008). He is the film critic for National Review. Ross lives with his wife and four children in New Haven. The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery Please visit the Ethics and Public Policy's Bioethics and American Democracy program page for more information.

Dr. Kristin Collier joins Aaron to discuss primary care, spirituality, and burnout in the medical profession. Dr. Collier is Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, Director of the Health, Spirituality, and Religion program, and the Associate Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Training program at the University of Michigan Medical School. She completed her internal medicine residency and chief medical resident year at the University of Michigan Health System. Her special clinical interests include preventative medicine, primary care, depression and heart disease. Her work was published in JAMA, the American Journal of Internal Medicine, and the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, among others. She enjoys cooking, sports and spending time with her husband and sons. Please visit the Ethics and Public Policy's Bioethics and American Democracy program page for more information.

Yuval Levin joins Aaron to discuss scientific urgency and morality, political polarization, and mistrust in the institutions of science and medicine. Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he also holds the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy. The founder and editor of National Affairs, he is also a senior editor at The New Atlantis, a contributing editor at National Review, and a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times. Please visit the Ethics and Public Policy's Bioethics and American Democracy program page for more information.

Professor Charles Camosy joins Aaron to discuss his new book: Losing Our Dignity. They address religion and medicine, secularized medicine, moral theology, medical ethics and the conundrum of limited resources in healthcare. Professor Charles Camosy is associate professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University. His work on bioethics and policy moves beyond stale and lazy arguments which artificially pit liberals and conservatives against each other. Instead, Camosy finds common ground by unpacking the real complexities of some of today's most passionately debated issues. You can learn more about Professor Camosy and purchase Losing Our Dignity at his website. Please visit the Ethics and Public Policy's Bioethics and American Democracy program page for more information.

Dr. Farr Curlin and Professor Christopher Tollefsen join Aaron to discuss their new book: The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession. They address the purpose of medicine, physician burnout, patient and physician autonomy, conscientious objection, and the future of the profession. The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession Please visit the Ethics and Public Policy's Bioethics and American Democracy program page for more information

On this inaugural episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Dr. Aaron Rothstein is joined by Dr. Aaron Kheriaty to discuss his journey as a physician, his work as a bioethicist, and his ongoing lawsuit over the University of California's vaccine mandate. Dr. Kheriaty is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he directs EPPC’s program in Bioethics and American Democracy. He is Professor of Psychiatry at UCI School of Medicine and Director of the Medical Ethics Program at UCI Health. He serves as chairman of the medical ethics committees at UCI Hospital and at the CA Department of State Hospitals. Human Flourishing, Dr. Kheriaty's Substack newsletter aaronkheriaty.com Please visit the Ethics and Public Policy's Bioethics and American Democracy program page for more information

Hosted by Dr. Aaron Rothstein and featuring expert guests, Searching for Medicine’s Soul explores medicine’s purpose: Why do physicians do what they do? How does the practice of medicine relate to scientific progress and human flourishing? The result is an in-depth analysis of the history and aim of medicine, and its collision with a thrilling and sometimes tragic age of discovery. Please visit the Ethics and Public Policy's Bioethics and American Democracy program page for more information