Dr. Stephen Bergman, a prominent psychiatrist and novelist, delivered the Phi Beta Kappa address to 2009 inductees, their families and friends and members of the public, focusing his speech on retaining compassion while practicing in the medical field at Spingold Theater last SaturdayDean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe began the ceremony by offering a brief welcome to the audience. Prof. Angela Gutchess (PSYC) called out the names of the 87 inductees and presented them with a certificate and honor cord signifying their entrance.

Associate Dean of the International Business School Prof. Trenery Dolbear (IBS) gave a short history of Phi Beta Kappa, tracing its roots from a fraternity at William and Mary founded in September 1776 to the prestigious honor society it has become today.

According to a May 9 press release about the speaker, the Phi Beta Kappa address has become a traditional part of the induction of new members; former speakers at Brandeis include Justice Stephen Breyer and former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger.

According to the press release, Bergman is "easily the finest and most important writer ever to focus on the lives of doctors and the world of medicine." He has written several books including The House of God in 1978.

Bergman titled his speech "How to Stay Human" and spoke about how personal experience and his writing taught him to retain his humanity and compassion while practicing in the medical profession. He identified for the inductees before him four of the most important things he had learned: that people need to connect to one another, to speak up when they see something that is wrong, to learn and practice empathy not out of a textbook but through living and to "learn your trade in the world," adapting to changing times and methods.

He described his discovery process as one consisting of a series of "wait-a-second" moments that require one to stop and think about any particular incident.

Later in an interview with the Justice, Bergman described one such moment in particular, telling the story of a women who had been brought in to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, where he was an intern.

The woman had been in a coma for years and had demanded before losing consciousness not to be left alive should she fall into a coma. The doctors, however, continued to treat the pneumonia she had to the best of their abilities, eventually sending her back to a nursing home still unconscious.

Bergman said, "What kind of victory is that?" questioning what the doctors had succeeded in achieving for the woman.

As he talked about his process of discovery and hardship, Bergman emphasized the importance of remaining connected to others in life, saying in his speech, "All of us in this room have experienced and will experience suffering. There is no way around it; the question is how we go through it. If you try to gut it out and go through it yourself, you are headed for trouble."

President of the Brandeis Mu Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa Prof. Andreas Teuber (PHIL), who introduced Bergman, told the Justice that Bergman came to mind as a possible speaker because "he straddles two fields; he is a writer, and he is in medicine, and he has a humane approach to medicine."

After the speech, Gregory Antill '09, who was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa and plans on going to medical school, said that Bergman's speech painted a picture of interning at a hospital as being "certainly daunting but encouraging that you get to heal people.