Why we're in dipshit

Ask your Doctor about it.

About thirty years ago I met a medical researcher who was giving courses on the then fashionable 'instinct therapy'. His name was Dr Jacques Fradin, and he was an expert on the subject. He had assembled a multidisciplinary team (including palaeobotanists, for example) and enjoyed the confidence of the government of the day, which even sent him high dignitaries in poor health to heal them using methods other than allopathy. He was a fairly solid scientist and the subject was fascinating but, dear reader, that is not what I wanted to talk to you about here.

In fact, this good doctor was explaining to us a behaviour that he had often observed in his practice - and that I have since observed in various forms in many other fields. It goes like this: the patient comes to the doctor with various troublesome symptoms. The doctor prescribes remedies to alleviate these symptoms and makes it clear that, since the patient is primarily responsible for his state of health, he must correct certain aspects of his lifestyle (diet, healthy living, etc.) in order to regain lasting health. He therefore completes his treatment with a longer-term programme and offers to see him again in a while.

On his next visit, the patient complains of the same symptoms, which have often worsened in the meantime. The doctor asks him if he has been taking his medication and, more importantly, if he has been following his more general recommendations. The answer to this last question is always no, because the remedies have made things better. At this stage, therefore, these remedies have become inadequate and more drastic measures must be taken to halt the progression of the disease.

This society has been sick for some time, and the remedies are no longer working. Stronger measures have to be taken - that's what you're getting now. But there are at least two problems with these measures. The first is that it's one-size-fits-all, so people who have nothing to do with the disease will be affected just as much as the rest. The second problem is that, as Dr Fradin tried to point out, your health is up to you - not your doctor, and certainly not the state. Common sense - backed up by history - tells us that entities that overstep their primary function become a danger.

Good doctors, like Dr Fradin, try to put you in charge of your own health. Bad doctors, the pill pushers, have been known to kill a good proportion of their patients. The last five years have amply demonstrated that the doctors now in charge are as trustworthy as rattlesnakes. If you trust them, you won't be magically cured of your current ailments, which are essentially due to your lack of vigilance and self-awareness, but you're essentially adding an already pervasive disease to the list: mental illness.

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