ABSTRACT
I first came across a reference to Franz Kafka's story A Country Doctor1 about 25 years ago, when I was starting out in general practice and thus becoming a 'country doctor' myself. I can't remember the exact context, but I know that it was quoted in an article by Marshall Marinker, one of the pioneers of the New British General Practice of the early 1970s. When I telephoned Marshall to ask him about it, he told me he had first used the quotation as an epigraph on the title page of a book called Treatment or Diagnosis,2 of which he was a co-author. The book is an account of a study of the 'repeat prescription' patient by one of Michael Balint's research groups. And the quotation was: 'To write prescriptions is easy, but to come to an understanding with people is hard.'
