The Use of Force



The Use of Force is about struggle.  One struggle between the physician and his patient and the other between the physician trying to stay composed as he is struggling with his patient.  The doctor is called to the home of this family with a sick daughter.  The doctor begins the examination by asking if the girl has a sore throat, and although they tell him no, he wants to check her throat because diphtheria was going around at the school she attended.  At this point, this battle began between the young girl & the doctor.  She did not want him to see her throat.  Both parents tried to get her to open the mouth but to no avail.  The girl gave up a pretty good fight, she would not open her mouth.  Throughout all this, the doctor is trying to stay composed, through his verbal and non-verbal communication. The doctor overpowered the girl at the end and pried her mouth open long enough for him to take a culture.

You would think that the girl would calm down after the culture was taken, after all, she lost the battle, but no, she was no longer defensive trying to keep her mouth shut.  Now, she was on the offensive and wanted to attack the doctor.

The story takes on this nice crescendo type of beat to it.  It builds up as these struggles go on with the doctor and the child.  However, I do not think that the child was being a brat, or rebellious as rebellious children are.  I think that her struggle to open her mouth, is because she knew what she had, but she was trying to deny it by ignoring it.  The minute you get the doctor’s diagnosis is like a death sentence.

I’ve seen that happen with so many family members and friends.  They are sick, or something is wrong, but instead of going right away to the doctor, they wait.  They hope that with time it will go away.  But it doesn’t, when they finally do go, in some cases, it was already too late.  Sometimes, people avoid going because of fear.  Fear of what the doctor may tell them, especially if it turns out to be something terminal like cancer.  They avoid hearing the news because once they hear the diagnosis it becomes a reality that they would need to deal with.  And mostly all of the times, people are not ready to hear such news.


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