Dr. M David Kurland discusses his journey to selecting his field, and the importance of what drives us to study, especially psychiatry. Dr. M David Kurland on finding psychiatry, and his journey through med school at Harvard University. The brain is an important aspect of life.

1. Psychiatry wasn’t what Dr. M David Kurland's father had in mind when he wanted his son to be
a doctor. Before psychiatry “found him" at 24, Dr. M
David Kurland tried to “mainstream” time and time
again with great effort and some success, only to
find his interests and performance elsewhere.!
!
At 12, Dr. M David Kurland read extensively, some
of it in science, some of it literature. Dr. M David
Kurland went on to Stuyvesant High School in
Manhattan. At his school, Dr. M David Kurland
excelled in almost every subject. A prodigy in his
English courses, Dr. M David Kurland also proved
his intelligence and dilligence in his studies of
Latin, and etymology. As an extra curricular activity,
Dr. M David Kurland was able to express himself
and bring joy to others through his studied and
disciplined playing of the viola. Dr. M David Kurland
realized that a handfuls of his classmates were
“naturals” in math and science in a way that he
didn't think he would ever acheive.!
!
Despite his observations, there he was, Dr. M David Kurland, entering college with a zoology
major. Though it was then a subject of interest, Zoology didn't have as much of a hold on Dr. M
David Kurland as did other subjects. Within one year,Dr. M David Kurland switched his major to
literature. Dr. M David Kurland loved it, and would never regret this important decision. Dr. M
David Kurland didn’t then understand why he wrote papers on the mind of Raskolnikov or the
physician as a character in the modern American novel, while others (the ones who’d go on to
graduate school) were writing about the structure of Donne’s sonnets, or the image of x in the
poetry of y.!
!
Dr. M David Kurland knew he wanted something more worldly and less ivied than grad school.
When Harvard Medical School said “Yes”, he went. He knew he was no poet but wasn’t quite a
regular doctor type either. Dr. Kurland wasn't sure exactly what he was. He labored. He could do
the work. Dr. Kurland added research in the Department of Cardiology at Boston Children’s
Hospital and saw himself as a cardiologist. Haha.!
!
In year three of Harvard University Medical School, Dr. Kurland had his first psychiatry rotation.
The experience was dramatic, intense, a self-discovery. Wow! He was able to speak at length
with two patients and realized how much he enjoyed writing up his “findings”. Dr. M David
Kurland read psychiatry with a joy he hadn’t experienced since the days in college when he
switched to English and philosophy. Ha.!
!
Then came the moment when... the instructors approached him. They said “Where have you
been?”. Dr. M David Kurland had finally found a home. Psychiatry.!
!
Dr. M David Kurland planned to spend a few months as a medical clerk at Queen Square.
Instead, Dr. M David Kurland decided to attend Guys Hospital in London for 3 months of
psychiatry. Since that fateful day, Dr. M David Kurland has never turned back.