Knock: a study in medical cynicism

Abstract

French literature has shown an enduring fascination with the social figure of the doctor. In Jules Romains' amusing playKnock(1922), and in its later film version (1951), the doctor as deceiver returns to centrestage with a flourish. Molière's seventeenth-century figures were mostly quacks and mountebanks; Knock is something new: he is a health messiah. By enforcing a mental and social hygiene based on fear, Knock brings a small rural population under his sway. Insouciance is banished by artful consciousness-raising. A society mobilises under the banner of medicine. But who is Dr Knock?

The words of prevention, part I: changing the model

“…5 The prevention concept, although really confusing, has invaded all life, manipulated by the industry, as well by the 1930' Dr. Knock figure who stands in every doctor, 6 replaced at the end of the last century by Dr. House in an attempt to raise the medical anxiety of the population. 7 The surge of clinical prevention…”

Looking for emerging themes in medical humanities—some invitations to our readers

“…12 The next largest category, with seven individual papers, comprises essays in literary criticism and exploration, including any lessons they may provide for clinical medicine. These include papers on short stories by Kafka 13 and Chekhov, 14 a play by Jules Romain, 15 the Sherlock Holmes tales, 16 Hamlet and depressive illness, 17 medical syndromes in French nineteenth century fiction, 18 and the lessons of television drama for clinical craft. 19 Vying for third place is the category of papers devoted to medical education matters, with four papers, to which should be added the shorter papers on educational matters featuring in our regular "Education and debate" column.…”

Medical Overtreatment: Friend or Foe?

“…There are quacks and mountebanks in prose and poetry who wreaked social iatrogenesis such as portrayed in Robert Burns’ “Death and Dr. Hornbook” and in Jules Romain’s “Knock” [1]. Thanks to modern regulatory reforms and the plaintiff’s bar, primum non nocere has grown teeth.…”