In His Own Image

IN HIS OWN IMAGE SAMUEL VAISRUB, M.D.* Man is wont to likenhis body to anything he feels most resembles him— not so much in appearance as in essence. A soul-containing vessel, a lump ofclay molded by the hand ofthe Master, a "tree planted by the rivers of water"—favorite old metaphors—are still in common use. During the Middle Ages the body became an alchemist's shop—an image probably not dissimilar to that harbored by modern biochemists. An image which went beyond metaphor to become a "model" was that of the machine. First widely used in the seventeenth century, the machine model dominated the imagination of man for many years to come. The iatrophysical school ofmedicine based therapy on the premise that man is, in fact, a machine and his diseases are mechanical derangements . The machine model gradually narrowed down to that ofa clock. In the Newtonian world, man was a part ofa universe which was wound by its Creator to function forever in a predetermined manner without further divine supervision. And even though this concept ofGod as a clockmaker latterly lost hold, new support for equating the human organism with a timepiece has come recendy from modern physiologists. Since all that is necessary for a clock is the reliable phenomenon ofaccurate repetition, it follows that the movements ofrespiration, the arterial pulse, the rhythmic activity of the alimentary canal, the rhythmic electroencephalographic patterns of the cerebral cortical function, and the periodically recurrent menstrual cycles are in fact clocks. William Gooddy [i] states: "Man, being equipped psychologically with a sense of time, may be considered physiologically as a clock system." The electronic age produced a new, sophisticated machine model, that of a self-regulating mechanism acting in response to closed feedbacks as * Address: 535 North Dearborn Street, Chicago, fflinois 60610. 394 Samuel Vaisrub · In His Own Image Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Spring lgji epitomized by the computer. Man could be visualized as nature's automatic calculator, with nerves as circuits, ganglia and midbrain centers as transistors, synapses as switches, and cerebral cortex as a recording oscillograph , which stores as memory the input of external perception. The midbrain relay transmits the output to muscles and internal organs, which feed back to its sensations or impulses, while the cerebral cortex records these events and initiates appropriate actions. Mechanical models may appeal to man the machine maker, the doer— the Homofaber—but what about Homo sapiens—man the thinker? For him Pavlov provided the now familiar living model ofthe dog with the hanging gastric pouch, the ringing bell, and the rewarding meal. The dog secreting gastricjuice at the sound ofthe bell even when his usually associated meal reward was withheld became a model of conditioned response from which all mental and behavioral processes supposedly derived. Possibly a useful operational model forbrainwashing, the Pavlovian dog has not succeeded in conveying the full image oíHomo sapiens—much less that oíHomo sentiens. The "feeling" man, the compassionate man full of anxieties about himself and of concerns for human suffering and frustration , has yet to find an appropriate self-image. Is there anything to be said for "the image ofGod"? REFERENCE i. William Gooddy. Lancet, 1:1139, !95^395 ...