It suggests that anyone who is sick is a victim.
Either they were attacked by a "bad" organism--virus, bacteria,
yeast, pollen, cancer cell, etc.--or they have a "bad" organ--liver,
kidney, gall bladder, even brain. Or, the victim may also have been
cursed by bad genes. In any case, the cause of the disease is not
the person and the person is neither responsible for creating their
own complaint nor is the victim capable of making it go away. This
institutionalized irresponsibility seems useful for both parties to
the illness, doctor and patient. The patient is not required to do
anything about their complaint except pay (a lot) and obediently
follow the instructions of the doctor, submitting unquestioningly to
their drugs and surgeries. The physician then acquires a role of
being considered vital to the survival of others and thus obtains
great status, prestige, authority, and financial remuneration.
Perhaps because the sick person is seen to have been victimized, and
it is logically impossible to consider a victimizer as anything but
something evil, the physician's cure is often violent,
confrontational. Powerful poisons are used to rejigger body
chemistry or to arrest the multiplication of disease bacteria or to
suppress symptoms; if it is possible to sustain life without them,
"bad," poorly-functioning organs are cut out.
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