Doctor Curmudgeon From Dark to Light

Yesterday at 02:34 PM

By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist/cardiologist

What if you were living in a dark cave from the day you were born?

And worse—you are chained by your neck and ankles to a wall.

This dank, miserable cave has an inner and outer wall.

In front of the inner wall, a fire burns continuously. At least your buttocks are warm.

In front of you is an outer wall.

There is a walkway between the fire and your back.

Hidden from your view, people walk behind you. They carry many objects, such as models of animals, human statuettes and other figures that cast shadows on the outer wall that you face.
All you see or have ever seen are the flickering forms in front of you.

That is your reality—the shadows on the wall.

This describes the cave Plate wrote about in the Republic—the famous Allegory of the Cave.

And so here you exist, knowing no existence except this cave, chained to a wall, unable to venture forth.

But now…wait…somebody is unchaining you!

You are free, moving from the dark into the light. Your eyes are painful at first as you acclimate to the brightness of the sun.

Now you begin to see what is around. This is another world, so different from the cave. At first you feel disoriented.

Then you see colors and flowers, birds and animals. Their shapes are similar to the flickering shadows on the cave wall. But these objects are real. And you understand that your fellow prisoners live in darkness believing that the shadows are real. The prisoners in the cave believe the cave is the only world.

You have escaped and are in awe of the actual, colorful, and vibrant world beyond the cave.

And so, you rush back to enlighten everyone. But nobody believes you. The others can only see in one direction, just their own visible world.

The prisoners are comfortable with their world view. They have no reason to contemplate any life beyond their cave. They have no motivation to change their lives. They have a fear of what is unknown.

Plato's allegory shows that those with diverse backgrounds and experiences perceive truth differently.

The shadows in the cave represent a world of darkness, illusions and ignorance. What we perceive may not be reality. And the world outside illustrates truth that can be understood by reason and thought.

The allegory illustrates the dissonance between knowledge and beliefs.

Plato demonstrates how our own perceptions can limit us. If we do not think critically, we are like the prisoners in the cave, refusing to move from darkness to light.

ROMAN COPY OF A PORTRAIT BUST C370 BC

Dr. Curmudgeon suggests “Bitter Medicine", Dr. Eugene Eisman’s story of his experiences–from the humorous to the intense—as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.
Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. –on Amazon

Doctor Curmudgeon® is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.

SERMO www.sermo.com

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