On 9 May 2008, at 15:08, Robert Kesterson wrote:

> Doctors spend years learning their trade, both in formal education  
> and in clinical residency, as well as in their "practice".  So if  
> only from the perspective of experience, they *are* experts compared  
> to the average person.  So when you go to a doctor for treatment it  
> is because you expect and believe that he is competent and able to  
> treat your condition.  This is reinforced by the fact that, for the  
> most part, people who go to the doctor *do* see their symptoms  
> improve (regardless of whether the doctor caused the improvement, or  
> just the passage of time, it's the *perception* that matters in this  
> case).


True.  Perhaps the inordinate amount of time doctors spend studying  
before being blessed with ability to heal people is one of the factors  
that makes people think that what they say is always correct.  The  
ritualistic nature of medicine doesn't seem much different from the  
idea of a witch-doctor - maybe there is something in human nature that  
wants to place the responsibility of health on an individual in society.

The idea that most people who see a doctor gets better is even more  
scary from the other side - doctors believe the things they do help  
almost all their patients.  After all, apart from those that are  
"predetermined as terminal" (or incurable), a patient either gets  
better anyway, or gets worse because the treatment was wrong.  In the  
first case, they don't need to go back, in the second case they don't  
go back because they aren't going to spend any more time with someone  
who makes them sick.  Since most things get better on their own, it's  
possible for a doctor to harm more people than he helps and still have  
the impression he is making a positive contribution.

Ashley