What Was I Thinking
PITTSBURG, CA, USA: Doctor Publishes Book Detailing The Maturation of His Thought Over the Years. Simon Gelman’s What I Was Thinking is a literary discourse of one man’s beliefs and opinions and their metamorphosis as they are tried and tested over the course of time.
Published by Page Publishing Inc., the book is not meant to recall and teach history but rather to demonstrate how certain thoughts are formed and influenced by outside factors.
The germ of the idea for writing a book took root in Gelman about seventeen years ago; at the conclusion of his chairmanship of the Department of Anesthesiology, Peri-operative and Pain Medicine. His limited knowledge of the American culture and his inexperience with nonmedical writing hindered the writing of the book. Over the years, the conceived idea was developing, and the question of whether to write the book or not gradually converted into how to write it. Gelman managed to overcome the uncertainties and decided just to tell the story.
The opening pages of the book resemble a memoir that offers a retrospective analysis of the thoughts Gelman had and actions he chose at different periods of his life. The following chapters address certain subjects like how to be a chairman of an academic medical department, relationships between doctors and patients, socialism and capitalism, and anti-Semitism.
What I Was Thinking does not suggest what should be done in one or a different circumstance. It rather tells the story of how and why the decisions (right or wrong) were made depending on the background and acquired knowledge.
Simon Gelman was president of the Society of Academic Anesthesia Chairs, Morton Society, and Academy of Mentors in Anesthesiology; an editor of major anesthesiology journals; and an honorary member of the Israeli Society of Anesthesiologists and the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists.
