260 Interacting with Their Patients
Patients needed to believe that their docs were absolutely im-
movable allies. Some of it’s also an illusion the doctors project.
Patients tend to buy into it, too: that physicians’ judgments are
authoritarian and infallible.
The need for doctors to be stable and constant manifested itself in
various ways. Patients assumed that doctors would always ‘‘be there.’’
Yet physicians could become ill or die. Paul, who lost a job offer, re-
flected on this problem, since his own physician—who was also a
friend—had recently perished. Paul felt she was not ‘‘supposed’’ to die:
not expected to, and somehow cosmically not allowed to. He wept:
She really was the friend that wasn’t supposed to die. She had
said she would take care of me. There was a huge comfort in that—
it wasn’t a question or an imposition. So it was totally unfair. Her
funeral was huge. Patients talked about how difficult it was: their
caregiver dying while they still lived.
When the doctor became sicker than the patient, an implicit border was
transgressed—in the minds of patients as well as of physicians. Moreover,
Paul felt as if his physician were magically immune from death. Thus, in
some ways, a physician’s death may resemble that of a parent, a protector
from harm.
To Bolster Magic
In conjunction with their authority, physicians often possessed an ‘‘aura,’’
implying a magical or superhuman element. Some of these doctors ex-
plicitly observed and commented on this power, surprised by its strength.
The placebo effect has been amply documented; and the psychi