Personal Statement

My relationship with Medicine since starting in 2021 has been, in a hopefully charming
honesty, fractious. Consistent phone calls to parents, perusing the various courses I could
swap to – both over-seasoned with a just-over-the-healthy-dose of existential questioning, I
believe these tensions have navigated me into a spot where intercalation is by far the best
option for me. To ensure a lifestyle that satisfies me, I believe I need to hone my own specific
needs and wants and calibrate this to a complimentary working life. I am certain
intercalation into the HSTM course will assist this in this process.
In contrast to the rigidity of a Medical School’s curriculum, my understanding of the
HSTM course structure is that there is relative freedom of choice in the direction the student
wants to take. I am particularly interested in the module options the ‘nuclear age’ and
‘madness in society’, the latter of these ties in with my interest in psychology which I will be
exploring in APEP project title this year: ‘Medicine and Art’. In this project, I hope to analyse
the symbiotic relationship neuropsychology has with art and how this can enhance clinical
practice. At this point in time, I may be exploring the history of the role humour and comedy
plays in mental wellbeing and stability. The leeway the course seems to offer in its
dissertation title and modules options may mean I can further this interest in a more
specialised sphere. In addition, the opportunity to do a placement module looks very
attractive- providing invaluable experience for narrowing down where in the world of I work
I would like to end up in.
Following the fulfilment I encountered studying history at A- level, I have had a
humanity shaped hole that I feel medicine does not fill. Given the opportunity to partake in
this course, I hope to develop this interest in humanities to a higher level, something that
medicine is yet to engender. During my history A-level it was the coursework that drew me
into the world of independent research and historiographical analysis. With this opportunity
I explored the British Empire’s role in the decline and ultimate collapse of the Qing dynasty
in 1911. I became fascinated with the interplay between both external and internal forces,
the British Empire and socio-political unrest respectively, and how it was possible for other
historians already well versed in the subject and me to mould a well-reasoned and
evidenced answer to the question that was still likely to be fallible and open to challenge.
While this subjectivity and the art of an argument seems an obvious tenet of humanities, it
was the independent exploration of a niche sphere that hammered in the importance of it
for me. In a world that seems to increasingly shift towards absolutism and the binary use of
the concepts of right and wrong, I believe the capability to approach situations with nuance
and to hold several potentially conflicting pieces of information together in congruity could
be a step towards a more harmonious society.
I believe my tempestuous relationship with Medicine emerges from an innate curiosity
into the nature and origin of things. I have questioned whether being a doctor would make
me feel I matter. I have evaluated and re-evaluated why am in this conflicted position in the
first place to the point of exhaustion. I will pour so much of my addlepated energy and zeal
is something that, given the opportunity of studying this course, can be channelled into
something I am wholeheartedly interested in.