Parasitology in Molière: Satire of Doctors and Praise of Paramedics

^Parasitology in Molière: Satire of Doctors and Praise of Paramedics* David Jaymes Molière's doctors are a strange lot. AU the real ones in his plays are bad doctors; the only ones who heal, usually servants in a middleclass family, are masquerading as doctors.1 Molière seems to have been fascinated by the paradox of a sclerotic, parasitic profession given to ineffective, violent medical practices. How is one to make sense of a therapeutic world in which the real doctors fail, the fake doctors succeed in healing, and the difference between doctor and patient is not always clear? In this study of two of Molière's comedies, Doctor Cupid and The Imaginary Invalid, I propose that the playwright's satire of the medical profession emerged as the comic exploitation of a phenomenon of interference .2 In Molière's plays, medical intervention never restores health but is always reduced to interference. The relationship between mind and body dominates Molière's views of health and sickness. Illness is almost always the result of psychosomatic problems, usually a case of the mind working against the body, of self-interference that undermines health. Analogously, any attempt by physicians to cure illness is doomed to failure and is equated with mere meddling. The medical profession itself, as depicted by Moli ère, is divided, ineffectual, and self-interfering. Yet healing does occur in Molière's plays, usually at the hands of domestic servants but sometimes through the agency of a relative or a lover. Strangely, it is the nonphysicians, the paramedics, who somehow have the perspective required to soothe the raging mind and restore the family to health. Their meddling becomes an effective intervention not subject to the laws of interference that plague the real physicians. In * I thank Richard A. Mazzara, my professor and colleague, who assisted in editing this essay. Literature and Medicine 12, no. 1 (Spring 1993) 1-18 © 1993 by The Johns Hopkins University Press PARASITOLOGY IN MOLIERE Molière's plays one cannot stare things medical directly in the face; for him medicine is the realm of the oblique glance. There are clues in the form of symptoms, but only the paramedics succeed in interpreting them correctly or at least know when to let well enough alone. The professional is by definition excluded from the inner realm. Neither physicians nor paramedics hit the mark directly: the physicians' professionalism prevents them from doing so; the paramedics' distance from illness is precisely what allows them to succeed in restoring health. Specialization leads to blindness; detachment produces insight. My reading of the two comedies owes much to Michel Serres, the French philosopher and historian of science. I use Serres's concept of the parasite to elucidate the doctor-patient relationship in the comedies. In fact, my interpretation extends to the medical comedies ideas that Serres elaborates in other contexts, including some of Molière's nonmedical plays. Because of his many references to seventeenth-century French literature, Serres provides the advantage of uniting seventeenthcentury drama and twentieth-century scientific theory. Throughout, Serres's voice will be that of a companion. In French the word parasite may mean a biological parasite, a social parasite, or electrical interference. As used by the Greeks, the prefix para- meant "beside" and si'fos "grain" or "food." The word originally signified "fellow guest." In his work The Parasite and other studies, Serres analyzes the function of this uninvited dinner guest in all kinds of systems —mechanical, biological, thermodynamic, communication, and information . Whether as noise, static, interference, redundancy, flattery, a virus, a leech, or a religious impostor, the parasite is an integral part of human institutions. If it is a microbe, it takes up residence in its host, perhaps weakening the host's defenses and causing illness. If, however, the parasite is a vaccine, a small dose of the poison, it can actually strengthen its host's resistance to disease and thereby play a constructive role. As static in an electronic circuit, it is the opposite of communication but is necessary in any attempt to define and control communication. All systems, argues Serres, are subject to invasion by a parasite. In some cases...