A Critical Study of the Narratives of Doctors Working in Circumstances of Oppression: Reading A Fortunate Man, The Use of Force and An Imperfect Offering

Medicine’s commitment to a paternalist doctrine where patients were obliged to surrender their rights as autonomous individuals in exchange for healthcare characterised the profession throughout the early-mid twentieth century (Brannan, 24). In recent decades however, a growing body of literature has sought to reclaim the patient’s identity, reinstate autonomy and recognise individuality. Considerable change has occurred as a result of this, though our progress towards a fully mutual and ethical practice of medicine remains obstructed by circumstances of oppression. In this paper, my original readings of Berger’s  A Fortunate Man (1967) and William Carlos William’s The Use of Force  (1938) draw attention to the impossibility to fulfil a holistic and ethical practice of medicine in circumstances of oppression. However, it is through a comparative analysis with James Orbinski’s  An Imperfect Offering (2008) that a moral basis upon which to build is demonstrated; that is, from a position of our shared vulnerability. This paper brings together three texts that focus on individual practice of medicine to present a comparative analysis of their common didactic purpose. Though I do not propose to solve the problem of oppression, I seek to raise levels of consciousness towards this in the context of medicine, and hope that collectively, a cause for further change may be generated.   Keywords: Medicine, ethics, Berger, Williams, Orbinski, Literature, patient autonomy   References: Brannan, Sophie. (2012). The Doctor-patient relationship. In Medical ethics Today: The BMA’s Handbook of Ethics and Law , ed.Veronica English, 21-58. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons. Berger, John. (2015). A Fortunate Man . Edinburgh: Canongate Books Ltd. Williams, Carlos William. (1984). “The Use of Force”. In The Doctor Stories , ed. Robert Coles, 56-61. New York: New Directions Publishing Corp. Orbinski, James. (2008). An Imperfect Offering. London: Rider.