The patient-physician relationship

Over the course of the semester a lot of our talk has centered around authority. The inherent relationship between the physician as being in the dominant position towards his patient. Since the first Carlos reading we understand that to be a doctor is to be given a certain kind of authority/agency over someone else's body, and by extent to be a patient (or to be sick) is to be at the expense of such authority.

I think that before I started taking this class, it would have seemed counter intuitive to think of the relationship between patient and physician as one which shows a large disparity of power. But now it seems that not only is that relationship one of unbalanced power but that medicine has historically benefited from the fact that to be a patient is to be in a position of inferiority. To be at the mercy of medical authority.

I don't think I've ever really considered the idea of being diagnosed with an illness as being placed at the mercy of someone else's authority. But I do know that my experience with doctors has affirmed this claim. This has held true not so much in feeling exploited, but where I can most readily recognize this unbalance is in my gratefulness after receiving help. In my gratitude I have made the Doctor infallible and ceased all critical thinking. In my understanding of his years of medical training, intermixed with some fear, that the cycle of relationship of dominance is complete.

I guess this blog is an open question or something I will continue to consider as we go on. But I think that overall, one of the larger lenses which I'm starting to develop through these readings, is how the patient-physician relationship is structured, and how it it leaves the patient in a position of being susceptible to exploitation.