First, Do No Harm

Medical doctors. Ya gotta love ‘em, and ya gotta hate ‘em. From Norman Rockwell’s iconic Saturday Evening Post portrait of the idyllic American doctor, to the Nazi’s rendition of eugenic “medicine” through evil incarnate Josef Mengele. Obvious to say: doctors as a whole are not all bad. But wow, what a history! And much of the scary part of that history involves doctors doing things they honestly thought were good for their patients! There has always been some lurking shadow archetype behind the smiling evil doctor with a hypodermic needle or a skull saw in hand, emitting a devilish laugh as he moves in for the “procedure.” What is that about?—why would the collective create such a figure to accompany Rockwell’s interpretation of the gentle, caring, and loving physician?