'Physicians are quite as intolerant as theologians. They never had the power of burning at the stake for medical opinions, but they certainly have shown the will.'
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Little foxes (1865)
The cognitive "illusion of knowledge" also plays a role. We have to believe that we know the answer and that there is only one answer, the one we have. To accept that we do not know the answer, or that other people might know the answer while we do not, is emotionally challenging and calls into question our very professional essence. Best to believe that what we think we know is actually true.
Finally, in a world full of "experts", controversy and opinion, holding on to a dogma is reassuring and may well have life-saving functions. Yet, dogma has a dark side and its dangers may be as great as its benefits. Doctors would do well to maintain a degree of cautious skepticism for both bold new fashions and received wisdom, whether generated by he world or by the self. They would do even better to question what they do, and see such questioning as an asset. It is everyone's responsibility to find out how to ask questions systematically, find answers from searching the literature, critically appraise the literature and apply the results to practice.
www.mja.com.au/public/issues/195_07_031011/bel10866_fm.pdf
MJA195 (7) · 3 October 2011
