This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Reith Lectures.

This lecture in the series Unmasking Medicine given by Ian Kennedy was originally broadcast in 1980.

My view can be stated briefly. Modern medicine has taken the wrong path.

An inappropriate form of medicine has been created, in large part by doctors and medical scientists,

and eagerly accepted by a willing populace.

I'll go further.

The nature of modern medicine makes it positively deleterious to the health and well-being of the population.

We've all been willing participants in allowing the creation of a myth,

because it seems to serve our interests to believe that illness can be vanquished and death

postponed until further notice, while it serves the interests of doctors to see themselves and be

seen as, if not miracle workers, and of course they would be the first to deny this,

then at least possible miracle workers.

Science has destroyed our faith in religion. Reason has challenged our trust in magic.

What more appropriate result could they be than the appearance of new magicians and priests

wrapped in the cloak of science and reason?

Please understand it's we, all of us, who've hitched our wagon to the wrong star,

scientific medicine, as our guiding light.

The unhappy consequence is that medicine is perceived and pursued

in ways which do not best serve the needs of society.

We do not put to best use the skills and abilities of those who have become its practitioners.

Let me explain in a series of points what I see as the path taken by modern medicine and how it may be the wrong one.

I intend to concentrate on doctors and their attitudes and training. They may represent only 7% of the National Health

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