Dr. Golem: How to Think about Medicine

The golem is a beast of Yiddish lore, made of mud and, when brought to life, is able to defend its master against any onslaught. But the golem is also volatile-it can go out of control and wreak wanton destruction. This is the cautioning metaphor the authors took up in their previous books on science (The Golem) and technology (The Golem at Large) and which they now apply to medicine, focusing each of eight chapters on a different aspect of modern medicine's capabilities and shortcomings. According to the authors' review of numerous studies, ""Medicine as we know it does little to increase the average expectation of life; diet, hygiene, and lifestyle have a much greater impact"" Their answer is that we should understand more precisely what medicine is-and especially is not-capable of. In a compelling dissection of the placebo effect and its logical quandaries, and in a disturbing analysis of tonsillitis' over-diagnosis, the authors make it clear that medicine can be inadequate and imprecise, with sometimes dangerous outcomes. This is not to say that it is to be discarded; the authors' straightforward writing makes this message easy to grasp, but answers to the big questions brought up are buried beneath the case studies.