[Medical discontent mannerisms. The physician in the work of Thomas Bernhard. A study in 4 parts]

Medicine and literature are related because they research the same subject: man. Physician and writer in one person may be traced throughout the centuries. The writings of the Austrian romancier and dramatist portray the physician in an outstanding position. The artistry and power of his words culminate in a monstrous scolding of physicians sprayed over the rhetoric targets and the audiences ending in a unison disqualification of physicians per se. The unremitting insults originate in the early youth of the writer who suffered from pulmonary disease and lived through the chaos of post-World War II medicine. At the same time they constitute an attempt at self preservation. In his gasp for breath, literally and metaphorically, he faces an ignorant and restricting environment of which he must free himself. Otherwise he would fall victim to suffocation by the world's indolence and his own perseverance. His chagrin at physicians is uttered strongly in a verbal barrage unheard of hitherto. In a bellicose effort to break-up good form into shrill dissonances he irritates and provokes the reader. He shatters conventional thinking and is able to reconsider and question petrified opinions. Such inner self examination is an important basis not only of the conduct of physicians.