Farid Alsabeh is a psychotherapist and medical student.

The weight of the white coat: imposter syndrome among medical students

Education
January 29, 2025

For students, medical school is more than just an educational opportunity: it’s a major stage of life that can evoke profound self-reflection. Between classes, clinical experiences, and interactions with classmates, one of these reflections may be the following: Do I really have what it takes to be here?

This is known as imposter syndrome, a phenomenon whereby a person’s perception of their merits or skills doesn’t match their actual accomplishments, leading …

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The weight of the white coat: imposter syndrome among medical students

Reviving the art of medical poetry

Physician
May 7, 2023

It’s often said that medicine is an art: that practicing it requires more than just a knowledge of theory, but a certain flair, intuition, and attention to style.

We might agree that medicine has the form of art. But what about medicine as the content of art: as the material and even the inspiration for artistic expression?

That isn’t as strange as it seems. In fact, in the Islamic …

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Reviving the art of medical poetry

What being a hospice volunteer taught me about health care

Education
November 5, 2022

The finality of death is a powerful teacher. For some patients, being diagnosed with a terminal illness is an experience that lends a tremendous shift in perspective and newfound authenticity. This can be instructive to them and the people around them. As psychologist Charles Garfield says, “The living have much to learn from the dying.”

This applies not only to the experience of a terminal illness but also to its …

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What being a hospice volunteer taught me about health care

What Karl Marx can teach doctors about burnout

Conditions
January 17, 2020

Professional burnout is widely identified using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, which defines it along psychological lines: emotional exhaustion, a feeling of depersonalization and cynicism, and a low sense of personal accomplishment.

Accordingly, the phenomenon of physician burnout is often framed as a personal problem to be solved by means of self-care. While this approach is undoubtedly helpful, it doesn’t sufficiently address the structural factors that contribute to burnout in the first …

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What Karl Marx can teach doctors about burnout