All those who loved the movie Patch Adams will want to delve into this rambunctious, visionary, and hopeful collection of essays and manifestos. It is subtitled Bringing Good Health to You, the Medical System, and Society through Physician Service, Complementary Therapies, Humor, and Joy. Along with his expanded biography, Patch Adams presents a blueprint for his dream of a 40-bed free hospital on 310 acres of land in a medically unserved area of West Virginia.
In this irrepressible primary care physicians's new paradigm of medical treatment, the emphasis is upon service, which he sees as a perfect antidote to boredom, loneliness, alienation, and fear. The relationship between healer and patient is one of intimacy and mutual caring instead of "the distance ethic" that is associated with detached scientific objectivity. Being "a nutty doctor" is saluted since laughter is a major healing therapeutic tool. Adams sees house calls as "food for the soul of a doctor." He criticizes malpractice as "a nightmare of fear" and lambastes third-party insurance. He believes that health is "happy, vibrant, maximum well-being." Let's make this humanistic and hopeful manifesto required reading at all medical schools!
