In the moments when a patient’s life is in his hands — as it is several times a week — New York neurosurgeon Dr. Theodore Schwartz compartmentalizes.
Standing in the spotlight of the operating room, with so much at stake, he says he moves through a complicated and detailed task list just as he would if he were building, say, a model ship.
Post-surgery, when he steps into the waiting room where anxious family members await news, the enormity of it all comes into focus.
“You can just see in their faces — the emotional impact,” Schwartz tells Quad Chief Marketing Officer Josh Golden in the latest episode of Quad’s “Building Blocks” video series. “And I can’t tell you how many times… they will start crying, hold out their arms and say, ‘Can I hug you?’ And then they just grab you and squeeze you. And you’re like, ‘Whoa.’ It’s this realization… That’s what it’s all about.”
Schwartz — who has twice performed surgery on Golden, most recently in January — visited “Building Blocks” upon the release his critically acclaimed new book “Gray Matters: A Biography of Brain Surgery,” published by Dutton in August.
In it, Schwartz traces the history of neurosurgery from its inception to today, illustrating points along the way with historical brain trauma cases such as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the sudden collapse and death of actor Natasha Richardson following a skiing accident.
The decision to write a book, Schwartz tells Golden, came from his desire to bridge the gap between neurosurgery and the general public — “so someone could pick it up and really understand what it is that we do, how incredible a job it is, and how we impact society and culture.”
It is a job, he says, that requires intense focus and has interesting parallels to performing, says Schwartz, who briefly considered a career in music.
Surgeons stand center stage in a room often referred to as an “operating theater,” where failure has severe consequences and “there is so much on the line…. It’s about just being totally present in the moment and not being distracted by anything else,” Schwartz says.
The focus and flow required of a brain surgeon offers lessons for other professions, Schwartz adds.
The brain itself — a biological computer constantly processing and calculating — is always on. “If you are focused on the sensory world around you,” he says, “it’s a distraction. If your phone is going off constantly and you’re reacting, then you aren’t creating.”
For more of this fascinating, candid conversation between a doctor and his patient — Schwartz and Golden — watch the full “Building Blocks” episode here:
Highlights from the episode:
On how a brain surgeon’s brain works
What’s the first thing Dr. Schwartz does in the morning? Where does he typically get his best ideas? What’s his morning drink? Favorite snack for a healthy brain? In this rapid-fire section of the Quad video series “Building Blocks,” featuring in-depth interviews with marketers, creatives and other cultural leaders, Manhattan neurosurgeon and critically-acclaimed author Dr. Theodore Schwartz answers these and other questions posed by Quad Chief Marketing Officer Josh Golden.
On the unique challenge of differentiating himself in the neurosurgery market
You might not think brain surgeons would have to worry about marketing themselves. Not true, Dr. Theodore Schwartz tells Quad Chief Marketing Officer Josh Golden.
On whether life is one big virtual reality experience
Does real life have anything in common with “The Matrix?,” the 1999 sci-fi thriller that became a franchise? You might be surprised to hear what Dr. Theodore Schwartz thinks in this episode clip.
On is brain surgery like a performance?
After all, it is called an “operating theater” for a reason. Dr. Theodore Schwartz lays out the parallels between performers and surgeons.
On can a person’s brain be ‘pretty?’
It’s not every day that a patient gets to turn the tables on his doctor. Dr. Theodore Schwartz performed two surgeries on his interlocutor, Quad Chief Marketing Officer Josh Golden. In this excerpt, Dr. Schwartz tells Golden what he really thought about the look of his brain.
