When Breath Becomes Air

When Breath Becomes Air

This memoir by Paul Kalanithi follows his journey from a literary and philosophical student to a neurosurgeon, and then a patient battling terminal cancer. It's a story about grappling with life's biggest questions, finding meaning in suffering, and facing mortality.

What you'll gain by reading:

• A profound understanding of life, death, and meaning.
• Insights into the doctor-patient relationship.
• Inspiration to live life with courage and purpose.
• A beautiful perspective and touching story on facing mortality.

Core Content:

1. The Intertwining of Disciplines

• Kalanithi blended literature, philosophy, and neuroscience to understand the human condition.

• He saw medical practice as the intersection of biology, morality, and philosophy.

• Literature gave insight into the human mind and morality.

• Neuroscience showed how those were tied to the brain.

• Experiences treating patients put philosophical discussions into reality.

2. The Doctor-Patient Relationship

• The doctor-patient relationship reveals human relationality and meaning.

• Neurosurgeons work in the center of identity, handling the substance of our selves.

• Surgery highlights questions about the sort of life worth living.

• The relationship confronts questions about life, death, and meaning.

• It combines biological needs with philosophical desires.

• It examines how neurologic suffering influences end of life decisions.

3. Confronting Mortality

• Facing death forces people to consider what makes life meaningful.

• This reflection occurs particularly in medical contexts regarding identity, pain, quality of life, etc.

• Kalanithi used his background to dissect and explore the meaning of life.

• Questions arise of trading specific human abilities for overall longer life.

• Parents must consider how much neurologic suffering a child can endure before death is preferable.

• These are difficult but important conversations to have.

4. Accepting Responsibility

• Kalanithi valued responsibility and the importance of acknowledging their mistakes.

• Having intellectual abilities doesn't mean you have moral clarity.

• In neurosurgery specifically, it's important to realize what can and should be done.

• Making judgment calls requires more than intelligence, but moral clarity as well.

• This is something that Kalanithi had to learn during his time in medical residency.

• It's important to not be afraid to own any mistakes you make.

Q&A:

Q: What sparked Kalanithi's interest in medicine?

• A novel called "Satan: His Psychotherapy and Cure" gave him the opinion that the mind was the operation of the brain. That made him go down a biological route.

Q: What did Kalanithi study before going to medical school?

• They were in English literature and human biology, with a master's in English literature.

Q: What ethical dilemma did Kalanithi encounter during his medical training?

• Seeing how parents abandoned their severly injured kids. He came to realize how brains give rise to relationships and meaning, but sometimes, they break.