Editing Samuel Shem (section)

{{short description|American dramatist}}{{More citations needed|date=April 2024}}

'''Samuel Shem''' is the [[pen name]] of the American [[psychiatrist]] '''Stephen Joseph Bergman''' (born 1944). His main works are ''[[The House of God]]'' and ''Mount Misery'', both fictional but close-to-real first-hand descriptions of the training of doctors in the United States.

Of [[Jews|Jewish]] descent,<ref>[https://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/news/2016/january/interview-with-balliol-author-samuel-shem "Interview with Balliol author Samuel Shem"], 27 January 2016</ref> Bergman was a [[Rhodes Scholarship|Rhodes Scholar]] at [[Balliol College, Oxford|Balliol College]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] in 1966, and was tutored by [[Denis Noble]] FRS, cardiac physiologist and later head of the Oxford Cardiac Electrophysiology Group. In an address to Noble's retirement party at Balliol, he related that Noble's response to Bergman's attempt to become a writer was to ply him with copious sherry.  He graduated from [[Harvard College]] and [[Harvard Medical School]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://med.nyu.edu/faculty/stephen-bergman|title = Stephen Bergman}}</ref>

He was an intern at [[Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center|Beth Israel Hospital]] (subsequently renamed Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) ,which inspired the book ''[[The House of God]]''.

As of 2017, Bergman is a member of the faculty of the [[New York University Grossman School of Medicine|New York University School of Medicine]] at [[NYU Langone Health|NYU Langone Medical Center]].

Shem's play ''[[Bill W. and Dr. Bob]]'' had an Off Broadway run at New World Stage in [[New York City]]. It ran for 132 performances and closed on June 10, 2007. ''[[The New York Times]]'' called it "an insightful new play."