Physician, heal thyself

 
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Buy House - Season 3 from Amazon.co.uk or from Amazon.com

House is a critically-acclaimed medical drama starring Hugh Laurie as the eponymous misanthropic but brilliant doctor. Each episode he and his team are confronted by a patient with a puzzling set of symptoms which they then attempt to diagnose. While the series was initially intended as a CSI-style medical mystery with germs as the suspects[1] the actual program is very character focused. The illnesses provide most of the narrative structure but the dramatic interest comes from watching the cleverly written personalities in the show and the complexity of their relationships.

Doctor Gregory House is presented as a fascinating but deeply flawed hero. Left with a limp and chronic pain by a life-saving procedure performed on him against his will, he is addicted to his medication, Vicodin. While this could excuse some of his habitual sarcasm and abrasive manner we are assured by an ex-girlfriend that he was ‘pretty much the same’ before the incident. Despite his reluctance to engage with, or even meet, his patients, House’s genius ensures that he almost never fails to diagnose each illness although he often risks the lives of his patients before he finally succeeds. His unorthodox methods and ready insults regularly bring him into conflict with the other characters and these quick-witted confrontations are among the many highlights of the show. On paper the hero is perhaps not the most likeable personality, but the show has nonetheless received very high ratings in America and Hugh Laurie’s portrayal of the doctor even earned him a place as one of People magazine’s sexiest men[2].

It is the character of House that makes this television series such compulsive viewing. But why do we like this rude and cynical doctor so much? In his witty insults and outrageous behaviour House speaks to the part of us that sometimes wishes we too could just ignore social convention and do whatever we want. We envy the freedom of his non-conformity. No-one can tell House what to do or make him do something he doesn’t want to do. He says and does exactly what he wants, often resulting in bizarre dialogue (‘Is it still illegal to perform an autopsy on a living person?’) and great television. House appears to be fully autonomous and in control of his own destiny. There is something in every one of us that longs for that same freedom.

Along with his disinclination to recognise human authority, House also rejects the idea of God. The existence of a being beyond his understanding threatens House’s view of the universe and his freedom to live as he wishes. Thus he responds with great scepticism to any suggestions that God might be responsible for a particular event. When one patient responds to good news with ‘Thank God’ House retorts, ‘Don’t make me slap you!’ This attitude towards the idea of God is a common one within our society and House gives the impression that it is a very rational position to hold.

Not only does House reject the concept of God, but he also holds a very low view of humanity. He constantly informs his staff, ‘Everybody lies’, and he seems convinced that the majority of people are boring, stupid, or both. While House’s firm belief in his own superiority is exceptionally arrogant, his diagnosis of a flawed world is probably familiar to most viewers. It may not be a pleasant outlook, but the doctor is right (as usual) that we are not the wise, noble, and all-round wonderful people that we might like to be.

So what is House’s suggested cure for the human race? In a particularly thoughtful episode he tells a rape victim, ‘We are selfish, base animals crawling across the earth, but 'cause we've got brains, if we try real hard, we can occasionally aspire to something that is less than pure evil.’ It is not a particularly comforting statement. The suggestion is that humanity can never aspire to true greatness and that the only way we can improve our situation is through application of our intelligence. Mistrusting less comprehensible concepts such as faith and emotions, the doctor’s solution is a total reliance on reason and logic. This may not seem too bleak an answer for a cynical genius like House but, as he has already categorised the majority of people as idiots, there seems to be little hope for the rest of us. Having rejected the idea of a powerful and loving Creator, House must necessarily reject the possibility of redemption for the world.

While House’s anarchic freedom is appealing, his lifestyle as a whole is not particularly attractive. Over time he is revealed to be miserable and lonely with very few real friends. This unhappy situation is largely shaped by his worldview and the way in which he defines his identity and purpose within the world. With such depressing beliefs about humanity, House defines identity, both his own and that of the people he meets, by the ways in which each person deviates from normal attitudes and behaviour. The people he finds most worthy of his interest are those who are markedly different from the rest of society. He says admiringly of one young patient, ‘Kid's not a cliché. Anyone can get in a fight after losing. It takes real creativity to beat up someone you just beat.’ The doctor’s own defining characteristics are his intellectual superiority, stubborn pride, and his dissatisfaction with life. While these leave him miserable and alone, House feels unable to change without losing his identity.

Without God, House is also left without meaning or purpose in his life. Living only for the present, he devotes his time to activities which bring him pleasure while making every effort to avoid pain and difficulty. It might be assumed that these activities would make House happy. One patient asks him, ‘Well, how miserable can you be saving lives, sleeping around and doing drugs?’ However, it appears that this lifestyle only alienates him from other people without bringing any lasting contentment.

Many of the themes evident in House are explored in great depth in the Bible. Starting from the supposition of a powerful and loving Creator, the narrative quickly picks up on humanity’s desire to be free from authority and take full control of their own lives. However, the Bible shows independence from God as bringing big problems for the world. In an assessment of humanity not dissimilar to House’s, it describes us as incapable of running the world on our own and ‘lost’ without the relationship with God that we were designed for. We become addicted to power and remaining in control just as House is addicted to Vicodin and solving cases. However, with a loving God in the picture, life is certainly not as hopeless as House suggests. The Bible acknowledges that people cannot improve themselves; it is relatively useless to apply our brains to making us better people. Instead the life and death of Jesus shows God acting on our behalf to bring us back into his care. The only snag is that accepting this gift involves not only accepting the existence of God, but also accepting his authority over us rather than clinging to control of our lives. For someone like House this is certainly not an easy commitment to make. However, the Bible claims that to do so not only brings freedom, but also allows us to discover our true identity and purpose and experience the most fulfilling relationship possible. Perhaps this is the treatment House so desperately needs.

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