I’ve been reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace and found this little passage from Part 9, Chapter XVI when Natasha is sick through shame.

They [doctors] were of use, were needed, were indispensable in fact (for the same reason that there have always been, and always will be, reputed healers, witches, homeopaths, and allopaths), because they satisfied the moral cravings of the patient and those who loved her. They satisfied that eternal human need of hope for relief, that need for sympathetic action that is felt in the presence of suffering, that is shown in its simplest form in the little child, who must have the place rubbed when it has hurt itself. The child is hurt, and runs at once to the arms of its mother or nurse for them to kiss or rub the tender spot, and it feels better for the kissing and rubbing. The child cannot believe that these stronger, cleverer creatures have not the power to relieve its pain. And the hope of relief and the expressions of sympathy as the mother rubs it to comfort it.  

This struck me as a really interesting thought, and it rang true to me. There is a deep-seated need, not only for relief, but for “sympathetic action in the presence of suffering”. As Moderns, we like to consider ourselves essentially scientific and rational in the face of life, but even so, it strikes me that this explanation is a lot more true than not. We don’t like to sit by idly while things are happening. In fact, it’s a relatively common thing in some of the shows I watch that certain protagonists are unable to sit by. They’ll say things like: I’m not just going to sit here doing nothing while my child is in danger. Half the time they make things worse through their actions, but even in the obvious scenario of making things worse, it is simply unacceptable to them to just let things play out… they NEED to attempt something, even if that might make the situation worse. 

I’m not necessarily saying that doctors make things worse… I am convinced that a lot of medical procedure isn’t particularly helpful, but I’ll admit I’m not really in a place to accurately judge that either.

However, they at least satisfy our need to feel like something is being done. That’s not nothing either.