MovieChat Forums > David and Lisa (1963) Discussion > Would David be able to get into medical ...

Would David be able to get into medical school?


Does anyone know if a kid like David in the 1960's would be able to get into medical school once they found out he had these mental problems? Even if he passed his courses, would the state give him a license to practice?

I felt that in the scene where he and Allen are eating the chocolate cake with milk that Allen didn't want to tell him that he wouldn't ever be able to practice medicine and didn't want to crush his dream.

Anyone know if such a person as David could accomplish this dream?

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This movie was based on a book, and the book was a true story. There was a sequel to the book that was about Lisa's and David's lives about 20 years later. It said David became a doctor at the same school where he met Lisa. So yes, he did accomplish his dream (but I don't know if it was in the 1960's).

Here's an article about it. It says David became a psychiatrist (like Allen):

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DEFDE1F3FF934A15757C 0A960948260&sec=&spon=

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Thanks but....at the beginning of the article by ELAINE HOFFMAN BARUCH, she states that the story wasn't true. I'm confused. Was the whole story of these 2 people fiction?

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Sorry, I should have said it's "based on a true story" instead of an actual true story. The author who wrote the book is a psychiatrist/psychologist, and "David and Lisa" story was inspired by two teenage patients he had in real life, or something like that.

I can't remember exactly what it was, but I'm confident that it wasn't pure fiction. I know it was related to something the author studied or researched.

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Actually Rubin states in the sequel's forward that yes, it was totally fictional, but a lot of people don't believe that. I'm sure it was based on his experience with patients, but the actual David and Lisa were fictional characters (at least based on what he's said). As far as the sequel I'd recommend forgetting it ever existed. I read it and it's not worth reading, unlike the original and film.

Play the game existence 'til the end...of the beginning...

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The answer is no. While many sick people have been admitted to Med school and got through, I would doubt if anyone with a record of the serious pathologies has ever been admitted knowingly.

" See dat scenery floatin by, you're now approaching NewportRI." Cole Porter

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It would depend mostly on how well he was recovered by the time he applied to medical school, and how well he had maintained and strengthened his mental equilibrium by the time he goes into internship, residency, and practice.

Obsessive-compulsives who have learned to overcome their problem have good potential to do well in professions which demand rigorous intellectual discipline. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder itself isn't so much a "disease" as it is a maladjustment of normal, healthy impulses that help people to be successful in life.

One of the things I like about the 1998 remake is that in that one the therapist, played by Sidney Poitier, tells David's mother "we both know what an amazing kid he is."

"I don't deduce, I observe."

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