article on doctors the second god
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In India, there is an old saying that doctors are second to god on this earth. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, however, describes a God complex as a narcissistic personality disorder.
“Those who are occupied in the restoration of health to others, by the joint exertion of skill and humanity, are above all the great of the earth. They even partake of divinity, since to preserve and renew is almost as noble as to create.”—Voltaire.
The 11th century Greek physician Galen had a huge influence on the medical knowledge of his time, and for several hundred years afterwards. He wrote some 500 medical treatises and lectured widely on topics as diverse as anatomy, physiology, pathology, and diagnosis, as well as psychology and ethics. Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius called him the best physician in the world — an accolade that Galen would surely have agreed with, describing his medical colleagues as ignorant and money grubbing.
Hardly any wonder, then, that Galen’s autobiography focused on his brilliant works and opinions, or that in an article in The Spectator titled “The cult of the prima doctor,” Peter Jones wrote, using his subject’s expertise in both analgesia and anatomy: “Galen was a pain in the backside, staggeringly arrogant and high-handed, disdainful of any doctor (let alone patient) who did not believe every word he said. If ever there was a doctor with a ‘God complex,’ it was Galen.”
Literature abounds with godlike doctors: Dr. Victor Frankenstein created human life; Dr. Hannibal Lecter made a meal of it; mild-mannered Dr. Henry Jekyll had to hide his propensities and took a potion to turn himself into a superhuman maniac; and H.G. Wells’ Dr. Moreau developed creatures by fusing humans and animals. But if real-life doctors were to go rogue, it could do serious harm.
In India, there is an old saying that doctors are second to god on this earth. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, however, describes a God complex as a narcissistic personality disorder.
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