{"id":3338,"date":"2022-04-07T10:00:42","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T09:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3338"},"modified":"2023-04-21T10:11:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T09:11:08","slug":"between-the-idea-and-the-reality-falls-the-shadow-the-hollow-men-t-s-eliot-1925","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2022\/04\/07\/between-the-idea-and-the-reality-falls-the-shadow-the-hollow-men-t-s-eliot-1925\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels of Death: When Healthcare Professionals become Murderers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Film Review by Franco Ferrarini, Introduced by Khalid Ali
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Healthcare professionals, especially doctors and nurses, have public trust to do the best for their patients when these patients are most vulnerable. Saving lives, maintaining patients\u2019 safety and dignity are core principles of the care profession. Unfortunately, widely publicized cases have shown that some doctors can turn into serial killers; the story of Harold Shipman<\/strong><\/a> was a tragic eye-opener.<\/p>\n

A recent case of another NHS doctor killing his partner\u2019s father was a sad reminder criminal tendencies can be found in some doctors. Simon Bruce, a senior family law specialist solicitor who was part of the legal team investigating this doctor stated<\/strong><\/a>:<\/strong> \u201cIt is truly horrifying that any doctor who has signed the Hippocratic Oath would be responsible for killing someone else and attempting to kill other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keeping a watchful eye to spot the few hidden criminals in the healthcare profession is a collective responsibility. In his review of the TV series \u2018The Fall\u2019<\/em>, Dr Franco Ferrarini describes some psycho-pathological characteristics of \u2018serial killers.\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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‘Between the Idea and the Reality Falls the Shadow’ (\u201cThe Hollow Men\u201d, T.S. Eliot, 1925)<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\u201cThe Fall\u201d <\/em>(TV series, directed by Allan Cubitt, UK, Ireland, 2013), available to watch on Netflix<\/p>\n

At first glance \u2018The Fall\u2019<\/em> could be seen as the usual \u201ccop vs serial killer\u201d story where both the cop and the killer are traumatized by demons from their past but confronting them in different ways: the cop by chasing criminals, and the killer by targeting innocent people. Paul Spector\u2019s (the killer, Jamie Dornan) mother took her life when he was still a child. Following that tragedy, he wandered among foster families and orphanages where he was subjected to repeated psychological and sexual abuse. Stella (the cop, Gillian Anderson) was very close to her father (as a matter of fact she never mentions her mother) but did not forgive him for dying when she was just 13, leaving her alone; moreover, her dreams, which she carefully describes in her diary, reveal that she was sexually attracted to him. Paul declares that torturing and killing his victims is an act of justice: since he suffered in his childhood, his victims must now suffer to balance the score. By believing that perverse logic, he takes on the role of the Nietzschean \u00dcbermensch<\/em>,1<\/sup><\/a> a man guided by his own moral values which override the common boundaries of Good and Evil and endow him with the power of deciding who deserves to live and who must die. This belief is clearly shown in his notes, where we see citations of Friedreich Nietzsche\u2019s philosophy. But there is an additional personal note: Paul tortures and kills exclusively women to take revenge against his mother who left him alone in the world; he strangles his victims with bare hands or suffocates them with a plastic bag, both acts resonating with his mother\u2019s suicide by hanging. What about Stella? She reacts to her hidden desire towards her father by adopting a masculine role in her sexual relationships, with both men and women.<\/p>\n

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