Civic Trust in Medicine and Public Schools: Paradoxes Galore
Cover of Hannah and Her Sisters [Region 2
There is a scene in the film “Hannah and Her Sisters” where the character Mickey, a hypochrondriac played by Woody Allen, goes to his doctor to see if his loss of hearing is due to a brain tumor. The doctor runs a series of tests and can find no evidence that Mickey has a tumor. The doctor says to Mickey: “trust me.”
The film came out in 1986. In the current political climate of contested health insurance, 20-minute visits with harried doctors who scan records on the computer screen, and Internet self-medicating, few doctors would say “trust me.”
Polls do show a decline in public confidence in medicine. The 2010 Harris poll on confidence in institutional leaders, 34 percent of respondents said they had great confidence in their