Most Interesting Books of 2006
Dr. Golem
How to Think About Medicine
by Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch
The University of Chicago Press
Dr. Golem is the third book in the extraordinary "Golem" series, which includes "The Golem", about paradoxes of science, and "The Golem at Large", about the intricacies of technology. The theme of the books is that these forces -- science, technology, modern medicine -- are not evil but clumsy. They are made by men, dangerously powerful, obedient but unreliable, fraught with unintended consequences, and never so simple as they appear. In the thought-provoking book, Person/Planet, author Theodore Roszak observes that what is good for the person is good for the planet, and vice versa. For example, if I walk to work instead of drive, the walking not only increases my personal health but has a positive effect on the problems of air pollution and overcrowded highways. Unlike Roszak's book, the crux of Dr. Golem revolves around two forces working, not in harmony but in opposition. The individual good often clashes with the collective good: the body's power to heal itself embarrasses the omnipotence, the reputation -- and of course the future funding --- of high-tech medical science. Despite mind-boggling theoretical and practical difficulties, essential decisions need to be made. The enormous significance of this book (as well as its predecessors) is the depth of thinking, and the clarity of thought of the authors. As the authors reveal layer after layer of complexities about various real-life health-related issues, the book reads like an intellectual mystery. More interesting, however, than the novels of Christie or Simenon, because so much more -- at the least, our health, and at the most, our very lives -- depends on the mysterious results.
— Michael Pastore
