In The Healer's Power (1992), Howard Brody imagines an imposing figure known as the Chief of Medicine. Faced with an insubordinate medical student trained in the new, inferior style - humble, egalitarian, emotionally honest - the Chief of Medicine delivers a long monologue on the nature of a doctor's power. Patients have a deep need to bow down to a doctor's authority, he says, as he paces the room. If doctors are to heal, they must believe in their own authority and wield it like a scalpel. 'Do you think I know nothing of the history of medicine?' the Chief of Medicine asks. 'Those men of a century ago healed because they believed their incantations; their so-called science provided the ceremonial backdrop and special effects needed to inspire, awe and ultimately heal the multitudes. Did you think I would fail to see that our lasers, scanners and computerised toys are just a finer and richer set of stage props?' Then he adds, a little sadly: 'The only difference is that our predecessors may have truly believed. I cannot believe; I know too much.'

LRB 8 January 2004 | PDF Download