When the inability to diagnose the severity of illness has the most profoundly tragic results, Patch only has a brief crisis before putting that darn clown-nose back on and getting back to the serious business of making patients laugh. How could the faculty object to this? Could it be because a first-year medical student might interfere with a patient's treatment and cause serious harm? No, it can only be because they are fuddy-duddies who just can't remember how to have fun! And while we're on the subject of fun, how about stealing supplies from the hospital for a little clinic that Patch and his friends set up in their spare time? And what goes on at that clinic? Medical students who have no idea how serious the problems are 'treat' patients with bandages and kindness. From there, it is off to medical school, where he manages to be at the top of his classes while spending most of his time at the hospital making the patients laugh. It is a pity Williams didn’t come and observe my colleagues for a week before embarking on this.As a patient in a mental hospital, Patch Adams ( Robin Williams) learns that his mental health is improved more by helping other patients than by treatment from the doctors. His inspiring life story was the basis for the Hollywood movie Patch Adams, starring Robin Williams. Although laughter underpins Adams’ therapy, this is not a comedy but a schmaltzy vehicle for Robin Williams to give impassioned speeches about humanity and caring. But it is hard to imagine such gross caricature finding resonance elsewhere. Themes: Childlike, Compassion, Laughter, Joy, Imagination. This film has been very popular in the United States, perhaps reflecting a culture in which people are angry at how expensive health care is and, by association, angry with doctors. Patch visits a hospital ward full of sick children and cheers them up with humor.

Then there are a couple of medical students who agree with Adams but haven’t got his wisdom or courage. The bad guys are the doctors, who are so stereotyped that even the script writers of Casualty would have thought them over the top. Adams and the patients are good guys, of course even the obnoxious patients are really good guys, but no one took the trouble to look beneath the surface-except Adams, that is. The film covers Adams’ time as a voluntary patient in a mental hospital and why he wanted to become a doctor, and his time in medical school and his challenge of the “establishment.” The characters are good, bad, or naive. Patch Adams is based on the true story of a doctor who wants to build a hospital where the ethos is humanity and laughter.

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