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1. Oral History Interview with Linda R. Thompson (1:10:00)

Date:
2021-11-15
Main contributors:
Thompson, Linda R.
Summary:
An oral history interview with Dr. Linda R. Thompson, conducted via Zoom by the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library on November 15, 2021. This interview is part of the Medical Alumni Stories Oral History Project, a joint effort of the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library and the UVA Medical Alumni Association and Medical School Foundation. Linda Ruth Thompson was born in 1941 in Bristol, Tennessee. She attended King College (now King University) in Bristol, TN, and graduated Magna cum Laude in 1962. Thompson attended the University of Virginia School of Medicine and graduated from medical school in 1966; she was one of three women who graduated in the Class of 1966. After graduation, Thompson completed a rotating internship at the State University of Iowa Hospital in 1967, and then returned to UVA for a residency in psychiatry (1967-1971). She served as the Chief Resident during her final year of residency and also as an Instructor in Psychiatry (1970-1971). Following her residency, she worked as a staff psychiatrist at the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute in Fairfax, VA, before going into private practice in the Washington, DC, area. Dr. Thompson pursued psychoanalytic training at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, and graduated from the psychoanalysis program in 1983. In 1984, she moved to the Tri-Cities area of northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia, where she has maintained a general psychiatric practice since 1984. Thompson also worked as a consultant until 2014, primarily with regional mental health centers, and she attended psychiatric patients at local community hospitals. In 2016, Thompson published a book about her experiences with breast cancer, which she was diagnosed with and treated for in 2007 and 2008. She continues to practice medicine part-time in Bristol, TN, and writes about issues in modern healthcare. In addition to her book Surviving Breast Cancer, Thompson is the author of two additional books: Return to Asylums: A Prescription for the American Mental Health System, published in 2016, and Old School Medicine: Lower Tech Care to Improve the High Tech Future of Healthcare, published in 2018. This is a shortened version of the oral history interview conducted with Dr. Thompson in November 2021. The full length interview remains restricted until 2047.