ABSTRACT
Thirty years ago, as part of a general assault on professional dominance, Ivan Illich published a searing critique of the ‘health denying’ effects of modern medical practice (Illich 1974). He suggested that professional overconfidence in therapies of sometimes dubious value was leading to serious problems, not only of clinical iatrogenesis but of social dependence in a ‘medicalised’ society, characterised and disabled by excessive faith in doctors. To explain these problems, Illich invoked the Greek concept of nemesis, or divine vengeance, visited by the gods on ordinary mortals who overreached themselves by meddling with unearthly powers and trying to become heroes. One significant offender in ancient times was Aesclapius – since regarded by many as the founder of modern medicine – who angered the gods by taking the ability to cure disease away from them and giving it to mankind. Aesclapius became so skilled in surgery and the use of medicinal plants that he could even restore the dead. Hades, ruler of the dead, became alarmed at this and complained to Zeus, who killed Aesclapius with a thunderbolt.
