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''The House of God'' is a satirical novel by Samuel Shem (a pseudonym used by psychiatrist Stephen Bergman), published in 1978. The novel follows a group of medical interns at a fictionalized version of Beth Israel Hospital over the course of a year in the early 1970s, focusing on the psychological harm and dehumanization caused by their residency training. The book, described by the ''New York Times'' as "raunchy, troubling and hilarious", was viewed as scandalous at the time of its publication, but acquired a cult following and ultimately came to be regarded as a touchstone in the evolving discussion of humanism, ethics, and training in medicine.〔 ==Storyline== Dr. Roy Basch is an intelligent but naive intern working in a hospital called the House of God after completing his medical studies at the BMS ("Best Medical School"). He is poorly prepared for the grueling hours and the sudden responsibilities without good guidance from senior attending physicians. He begins the year on a rotation supervised by an enigmatic and iconoclastic senior resident who goes by the name The Fat Man. The Fat Man teaches him that the only way to keep the patients in good health and to survive psychologically is to break the official rules. The Fat Man provides his interns with wisdom such as his own "Laws of the House of God" (which amount to 13 by the end of the book). One of his teachings is that in the House of God, most of the diagnostic procedures, treatments, and medications received by the patients known as "gomers" (see Glossary, below) actually harm these patients instead of helping them. Basch becomes convinced of the accuracy of the Fat Man's advice and begins to follow it. Because he follows the Fat Man's advice and does nothing to the gomers, they remain in good health. Therefore, ironically, his team is recognized as one of the best in the hospital, and he is recognized as an excellent intern by everyone, even though he is breaking the rules. Later, the Fat Man must leave for a rotation with another team. Roy is then supervised by a more conventional resident named Jo, who, unlike the Fat Man, follows the rules, but ironically, unknowingly hurts the gomers by doing so. Basch survives the rotation with Jo by claiming to perform numerous tests and treatments on the gomers while in reality he does nothing. These patients again do well, and Basch's reputation as an excellent intern is maintained. The book also details the great amount of hard, distasteful work the interns must perform, the sometimes poor working conditions, their lack of sleep, their lack of time to spend with friends and family, and the emotional demands of the work. During the course of the novel, working in the hospital takes a psychological toll on Basch. His personality and outlook change, and he has outbursts of temper. He has adulterous trysts with various nurses (portrayed in great detail) and social service workers (nicknamed the "Sociable Cervix") and his relationship with his girlfriend Berry suffers. A colleague, Wayne Potts, who had been constantly badgered by the upper hierarchy and haunted by a patient (nicknamed "The Yellow Man" for his fulminant necrotic hepatitis, who goes comatose and eventually dies because Potts had not put him on steroids), commits suicide. Basch becomes more callous and he secretly euthanizes a patient, a man called Saul the leukemic tailor, whose illness had gone into remission but was back in the hospital in incredible pain and begging for death. Basch becomes more and more emotionally unstable, until finally his friends force him to attend a mime performance by Marcel Marceau, where he has an experience of catharsis and recovers his emotional stability. By the end of the book, it turns out that the psychiatry resident, Cohen, has managed to inspire almost the whole year's group of interns and two well-spoken policemen, Gilheeney and Quick, to pursue a career in psychiatry, and that the terrible year has convinced most of the interns to receive psychiatric help. The book ends with Basch and Berry vacationing in France before he begins his psychiatry residency, which is how the book begins as well, because the whole book is a flashback. But even while vacationing, bad memories of the House of God haunt Basch. He is convinced that he could not have gotten through the year without Berry, and he asks her to marry him. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The House of God」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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