PATCH ADAMS

 

THREE STARS – Thought-provoking

 

 

       The temptation in any profession is to distance ourselves from those we serve.  Though often described as being “objective” and “professional,” the result is one of increasing distance and loss of understanding and compassion.  Using labels which keep us from getting “down on their level,” we describe people in need not as fellow human beings with whom we share our lives, but as patients, parishioners, clients and customers.

       Thankfully, there are those who remind us of our humanity and the need to connect on that level first if we are to truly heal and care for one another.  “Patch Adams” is one such person.

       Based on the true life experience of a brilliant medical student who questioned the educational methods of his medical school, Patch Adams (Robin Williams) wants to treat people, not diseases.  He explains, “You treat a disease, you win, you lose.  You treat people, and I guarantee you win!”

       A troubled man who becomes so depressed that he admits himself into a psychiatric hospital, Adams discovers that he has the gift of being able to help others.  Unlike the detached psychiatrist in charge of his hospital, Adams gets down with his paranoid roommate and enters into his delusional world.  What he discovers is that, in so doing, he is able to free his roommate from his irrational fears and cure his own depression at the same time.

       Although this mutual care is the primary message of the film, the film does not leave it at such a shallow or obvious level.  The strength of the film is that it shows not all physicians as arrogant or all vulnerability as wise, but that there must be balance in both professional boundaries and personal compassion.

       The villain in this tale is a rigid and cold academic dean named Dean Walcott (Bob Gunton).  As a seasoned medical educator, Walcott explains that being human means to be fallible, so he is going to make the students into something better than humans, he is going to make them into “Doctors.”

       With those words, a palpable tension could be felt in the theater.  On the one hand, as physical beings we do want our physicians to have greater power than that which we have.  We want our physicians to heal us and we are willing to give a “worshipful” respect to them if they will only grant us longer life.  These expectations that we often place on our professionals feed a temptation for them to accept this awe and begin to believe it themselves.

       The problem is that on the other hand, we know that doctors are not gods, pastors are not divine and lawyers are not all-powerful.  When they distance themselves from us with a professional superiority, language or arrogance, others want to bring them down.

       This is part of the genius of the film.  Adams blatantly disregards the mechanisms designed to reinforce the distance.  From ignoring the hospital protocols with its white coats and sober demeanor, to using enema balls as clown noses and bedpans as hats, Adams brings laughter and hope into the fear-filled eyes of the ill and dying.

       But Adam’s disregard for professional behaviors predictably goes too far.  What Adams does not recognize is that many of the professional practices were developed as a response to dangers present in trying to help others.

       One example of this is when Adams observes a poor person unable to pay for medical care and so decides to open a free clinic.  Talking two of his fellow students into joining him, Adams begins to practice medicine without a license and, since he has no income, resorts to stealing medical supplies in order to care for those who have come for his help.

       Though this disregard for proper licensing and necessary financial support gets him into trouble with the American Medical Association, it is his second imbalance which is devastating.  Having fallen in love with a beautiful, younger medical student whose beauty had caused her to be sexually abused as a child, Adams is able to slowly and deliberately gain her trust.  But, like many who have problems trusting, when she opened herself to trust others she has no experience of knowing who is trustworthy.  Due to her new allegiance to Adams’ method of compassionate vulnerability, she falls victim to a violent patient and pays the ultimate price.

       “Patch Adams” is a film showing that professional life is dangerous in either extreme response.  To be distant and arrogant can cost the professional his or her humanity.  But to be vulnerable and involved can cost the professional person his or her life, for the needs are unending and the dangers real.

 

       777 words

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