Nawal El Saadawi mentions in the author’s notes preceding the novel that, even though there may be autobiographical elements, the story of the woman doctor is a work of fiction. Indeed, there are no names in this novel, which indicates that Memoirs of a Woman Doctor could be the story of any girl in Egypt or any other country where women are oppressed and denied equal rights.
As soon as the protagonist realizes that as a woman she is not an equal member of society, she sets out to defy her parents and decides to study medicine in an attempt to satisfy her need for esteem. While she does manage to gain status, recognition, and freedom, she soon feels that love and a sense of belonging are missing. Therefore, she acts precipitately and marries a man who turns out to be a threat to her journey to self-actualization.
After divorcing him, she again satisfies her need for esteem by becoming a rich and successful doctor. However, she soon realizes that she is cold and empty inside. This leads to unhappiness because according to the hierarchy of needs, the need for love and belonging has not been satisfied yet, so the top needs (esteem and self-actualization) are on a very weak foundation and difficult if not impossible to meet.
Finally, when she meets a musician at a party she engages him in a conversation on self-actualization, telling him to put his own needs before the taste of the public. Ironically, this is what she needs to do as well--in order to be happy, she needs to find a greater purpose in life. The musician gives her that purpose by helping her realize that she needs to be warm and caring, making sure that for her patients she is the best doctor she can be (the very definition of self-actualization). With the supportive musician satisfying her need for love and belonging, the way to the top of the hierarchy of needs is within reach: “I felt as if I’d been stripped of my past life and had gone back to being a child learning to walk. I’d begun to need a hand to support me. For the first time in my life I felt that I needed someone else, something I hadn’t felt even about my mother.”
