MD/Doctors/Themselv/

Promised anonymity, 70 doctorsa third of them womenof all geographic areas, stages of practice and types of specialties, talk candidly about both their professional and private lives in these appealingly human oral narratives that are ably annotated by Pekkanen, a Reader's Digest roving reporter. They discuss their mistakes, triumphs and sentiments as members of a profession accused by a skeptical public of incompetence, greed and arrogance. Pride and idealism alternate with bitterness at dehumanizing medical training in narratives illustrated by grim, moving and sometimes funny anecodotes. The doctors are often critical of colleagues and troubled by the high number of impaired, incompetent or unprincipled physicans. Many rue unnecessary medical procedures and the prolonging of life of terminal patients, and resent government funding standards and the need for expensive malpractice insurance. All of them feel helpless in the face of the AIDS epidemic. (October)