The Physician.

The Physician
Abstract
In the novel and film The Physician, IbnSina is one of the foremost philosophers in the medieval period. He had a great deal of knowledge about chemistry, physics, and math. He was one of the most famous scientists in the Islamic world.
This movie made me think about medicines they used in those ancient days. For instance, how did they treat toothaches? How could they remove an appendix with no surgical tools? I was fascinated by this movie; especially because IbnSina taught himself about many diseases that no one had diagnosed before. The movie is about a man named Rob Cole who has heard great things about IbnSina, “the prince of physicians.” Sina is also known as a man who cures people and then teaches others what he knows. Cole has not been involved in the war between the Muslims and Christians. The Muslims lived in peace with the Jews, and the war was between Islam and Christianity. But Cole, who is a Christian, decides he must travel as a Jew to protect himself and be allowed to learn from IbnSina, and that is when the action begins.
What really surprised me about this movie is how close it was to the real story we have heard in school. This movie has taken me to the beginning of medicine. For example, there was an old theory that a patient could “vomit up” his sickness by drinking something that tastes very bad. This movie developed more than one storyline within a regular movie time; for instance, the man who travels as a Jewish man, seeking knowledge, who then falls in love with a Spanish girl. The movie explores the religious wars of that time, as well as the story of the great physician IbnSina. My impressions about this movie were that it was well directed and easy for the viewer to follow. The Physician is enjoyable to watch, and I learnt new medieval period knowledge from it.
Culture Context
Culture is defined by a system of beliefs or the behavior of a community or society. In the movie, finding the cure for the Black Death improved the life of the community. Also, the physician provided an instructor to educate people about the diseases and how they could help themselves to live safely and peacefully. He saved data that helped others to know more about the disease and how to find medicines to cure it. People were suffering from different diseases that they could not isolate. The physician created a new way of thinking and living that helped a lot of people.
Finding a cure for deadly diseases helped the culture to be healthy and live in peace. People were no longer afraid of diseases, and the culture became more productive. Without fear to paralyze them, people could be happier and more productive. The physician used a method used in many nations suffering fromthe plague at that time. The plague was caused by fleas carried by rats and mice fleas carried by rats and mice caused the plague. IbnSina knew that the only way to prevent the plague from spreading through the whole country was by burning the rats, mice, and bodies of the victims.
Moreover, educating people allowed them to help each other and support and create a more stable community. The culture changed once the population was educated. People could cooperate with each other and help each other in the most serious situations. People can act normally, but when their health is endangered, they might become desperate or irrational as they try to find someone who can help cure them. Knowledge helped to keep people healthy, happy, and safe.
Ibnsina believed that no one would know him or know what he did for humanity if he did not pass on his knowledge. “How pale and tedious this world would be without mystery” (Ibnsina). He wanted people to know that they should fear neither life nor death. “Because there is nothing to be afraid of. Death is merely a threshold we must all cross… into the silence, after the final heartbeat… drifting away with our final exhalation… into eternal peace…” (Ibn sine). The Physician is enjoyable to watch, and I learnt new medieval period knowledge from it.
Social Context
Social, according to Oxford Dictionary, is an informal gathering, especially one organized by the members of a particular club or group (Oxford). Society is people influencing another group of people to their individual or communal benefit .The film The Physician, which reveals how social problems spread globally, shows more than one side of these problems, revealing the impact that society has on religion, land, and medical technology.
Religion, rather than location, is considered a source of identity. The movie talks about wars happening for many reasons, such as clashes over beliefs, lands, and tribute. Governments need more than strong organized countries; they need the people to believe in God. Belief in God prevents people from doing evil instead of thinking just about going to jail or being otherwise penalized. People who do not believe in God have nothing to lose in life, so they steal, murder, and commit other atrocious crimes. The movie talks about the place religion starts, which is a land that becomes a holy place that God has helped to choose for his people. Religions establish rules that help governments to be stronger against faithless countries. Those religious leaders can ask followers to fight invaders and protect themselves. Religion helps to create a stronger nation.
The movie also talks about the importance of land, which allows people to have farms, homes, and freedom. However, the movie talks about nations sharing one holy place to educate themselves in order to develop their countries or their religions. The movie talks about people seeking land, but they are actually seeking freedom for their rights to practice their religion provided there is no harm to others.
The movie also talks about the influence of society on medicine. The movie talks about more than just one isolated technique to cure diseases; these methods are used around the world by increasingly experienced people who can now help to solve some mysterious diseases. The movie shows how medicine has moved from the first surgery in the history of humankind or the first accurate drawing of the inside of the human body to its current advanced state. Physicians in earlier times lacked information and technology. Medicine was given to the patients based simply on the nature of their complaints. Today, we know more about human health and what causes sickness. The Physician is enjoyable to watch, and I learnt new medieval period knowledge from it.
Technological Context
Scientific discovery and technology have had far reaching positive and negative impact on the society from time immemorial (Neumann and Tunis 378). Though there is no universal definition of technology, a succinct definition is offered by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, as “the practical application of knowledge” in solving problems or inventing some other useful things (Merriam-Webster Para 1 and 2). In the movie The Physician, Philipp Stölzl depicts the role of medical technology in solving mysterious infections and maladies, the laborious challenges undergone by the medics to acquire medical technology and how social and religious belief antagonizes technological development. This paper argues a thesis that advancement in medical technology calls for a sacrifice of a few ambitious individuals, like Robert Cole, who have the passion to seek and apply new knowledge and to defy the antagonistic forces emanating from culture and religion.
The movie, The Physician, exalts the role played by the technology in solving the most horrible human suffering of the time, where other systems have failed. The film is set in 11th-century, in the English town, at a time when the medical technology has not significantly developed, and there are no experts to carry out surgical operations or advanced medical treatments. Consequently, the protagonist has to watch her mother die helplessly after struggling with a mysterious illness. Being a Christina society, it is beloved that forces of darkness cause the sickness that the mother eventually succumbs to. As a young boy, Cole swears to study medicines to help people in the future. Orphaned, he joins a barber surgeon as an apprentice, where he learns some basic medieval medicinal skills like bloodletting, dental extraction and cupping therapy. Unfortunately, the barber contracts cataract and cannot get help from the English people. However, Cole manages to get the help of a Jewish doctor who manages to treat the barber, and he heals fully. At this point, the audience admires the role of Jewish medicinal technology in remedying health complication where the existing technology (in this case English and medieval medical technology) has failed. In the process, he learns about the renowned Persian medic and medical teacher IbnSina. He decides to move on to be trained in medicines by IbnSina.
IbnSina’s apprenticeship to help Cole a great deal in solving further maladies, especially after he moves on to Egypt where he learns further medical skills. When massive deaths arise from plague arises, he learns to link the oriental flies to the plague. Using basic hygienic principles, he discerns that what is called by the Egyptina as Black Death could be carried by the fleas, and suggests the use of a rat poison to suppress the pest’s (oriental fleas) population and consequently manage the deaths, this works miraculously. It can, therefore, be seen that technology comes to offer solutions where traditional beliefs and religions merely created a mystery. He makes a further development by conducting an autopsy, contrary to the tradition and religious doctrines, and in the process learns more about an appendectomy. This knowledge later helps him treat others, like Shah to whom he does appendectomy when he gets vermiform appendix. Probably, had Cole been a conformist, to the traditions and religion, he would not have been in a position to help.
The movie shows that as an application of knowledge, technological development demands constant pursuit of new knowledge and applying the same to solve existing problems. It also calls for the willingness to sacrifice and go extra mile to find solutions, even if that means defying the norms. The Physician is enjoyable to watch, and I learnt new medieval period knowledge from it.
Historical Context
The movie is all about the wonders of the Orient and the religious extremism; The Physician is a 165-minute movie that is composed of computer-generated images that can capture the tale of scheherazable. The movie was set more than 1000 years ago. Its setting resembles the Viking-era with untouched landscape that captures the eyes of the viewers. The movies denote how the Christians ordains that prayers and to determine how it could cure pain as compared to contemporary scientists who cannot and that medicine is the work of witches and the devil. Though the movies were transformed to HD (High Definition); this is a highly calibrated movie quality, it is full of computer aided techniques. The movie is made up of the features of old tales (George 12).
The movie plot is divided into two pain parts, one was when Rob was young with the mother and at some point the mother dies. This undertaking shows the viewer that despite the skills that Rob had as a foreteller it could not help him prevent her mother’s death. Later, the young boy was able to cure people after gaining additional medical knowledge from the Jews. The movie was all about the undertaking of the medical field. In order to understand the movie, The physician, it is wise to elaborate more on the definition of a physician.
A physician is an individual with the mandate of determining the health status of a person, diagnose the person and also offer other medical or health advice. Dictionary definition: A physician is a person who is allowed to practice medicine, which is concerned with restoring and maintaining the health of human being through study, treatment and diagnosis of diseases and other complications.
There are several main things that happened in the movie but the mains ones are the wrong perception that Christians of the time had against foretelling practices in medicine, the knowledge of the Jews to conform to changes in treatment of patients, and the power of foretelling skills and current medicine (Gordon 7).
Foretelling: This is the ability to look into the future without having prior notice of what will happen in the future. Dictionary definition: the ability to prophecy by use of supernatural powers.
The movie depicts that the early Christians were lucky to have people in their locality such as Rob as indicated in the movie that could be able to foresee medical problems of even death. Despite the fact that this person existed, the early Christians objected such skills and noted that it cannot play a part in medicine knowledge. This has an impact in today’s medicine as still the foretellers are considered as medical Quakers. They are not permitted by law to practice medicine or act as physicians. However, most rural areas in undeveloped countries still use these individuals.
Rob brought a different foretelling skill to the Jews who also had outstanding medical knowledge. After his understanding of medicine, his knowledge was improved and become one of the best physicians in history as informed by the movie (Seraphion 1). It from the past skills and knowledge from individuals such as Rob we can get treatment and cures of ailments and diseases. They heavily contributed to contemporary medicine.
Therefore, it can be deduced that The Physician is a credible movie showing the gap between non-aboriginal and aboriginal medicine. The Physician is enjoyable to watch, and I learnt new medieval period knowledge from it.
Psychological Context
The term psychology refers to the human mental and behavioral activities that determine the ability to associate with other in a particular manner. According to the oxford dictionary, psychology refers to the study of human mind and its functionality mostly in factors that affect behavior. ‘The Physician’ is a movie set in the 11th century in a Persian school. The movie presents a physician who disguised himself as a Jewish believer so as to enroll and study is a Jew, only school where Christians are not allowed. Psychologically the movie has various scenes, acts and cinematic features that involve human feelings, affects the human mind, arouse awareness and motivation.
Death in the movie emerges as a psychological phenomenon that affects human mind and feelings. In the movie, the traumatic death of Rob Cole’s mother invokes a feeling of hopeless, destitution and mental anguish. The audience feels for the orphaned young and parentless Cole, at the age of 9. The bereaved portrayed as a vulnerable child at the danger of becoming a street urchin. The audience gets a feeling of the cruelty of death and possibility of passing out any time. The death of Cole’s mother in the movie draws several psychological issues. Death also depicted by the aggressiveness of Seljuks and the civil disobediences that often turned violent. According to Niemiec and Schulenberg (2010, 387), “the portrayal of death is one of the most common themes in movies and is often unrealistic, promoting misconceptions to the public”. The audience gets to appreciate the fact that death is inevitable, irreversible, and permanent. These attributes of death in the movie create different forms of anxiety among the audience not only when watching the movie but throughout the life. From a psychological context, ‘The Physician’ movie provides a medium through which the audience faces death as they identify with Cole and the mother and follow the plot. At the same time, the movie provides an avenue for the audience to escape death because they know the characters are just actors.
The movie offers contradictory approaches to help one understand stereotypical mentality. First, the movie ‘The Physician’ plays an important role in the reinforcement and perpetuation of misconceptions. In terms of anxieties about uncertainty about the life of the character Cole, the movie feeds not only unnecessary fears but also support unhealthy racial and religious attitudes. The discriminatory actions are shown by the Jewish school management when it admits only the Jews and not Christians. The action of Cole to circumcise himself so as to get admission into the Jewish school also reinforces the misconceptions that Jews are special people who should not mix with others. Secondly, the movie seeks to debunk some of the highly held misconceptions and attitudes. That is; the movie provides an opportunity to the audience to challenge some of the highly held personal attitudes towards suffering. The audience is taught to have a healthy perspective towards life and suffering and is shown by the suffering of Cole to beat all odds, walk through the sandy deserts and get admission in a medical school.
The movie ‘The Physician’ demonstrates the concept of positive psychology. The concept relates to an aspect of good, engaged, and meaningful life. The concept of positive psychology describes the methodical delineation the strength, virtues, universality of cultures, and the of character’s belief systems (Seligman, Steen, Park & Peterson, 2005). In the movie, Cole is depicted as a person who fits the description of positive psychology. Cole gained more interest in healing and medicine after the death of the mother, through inspiration by a Jewish physician who was trained by Persian physician Avicenna. This interest emerged organically after the terrible loss and conviction to help other sick people in the future. Psychologists would describe Cole as a person who has a personality of self-regulation, a virtue of temperance that offered him mental stability to lessen and manage person fears, anxieties and obstacles. In psychology, self-regulation or control involves the ability to override ones’ thoughts, emotional status, and behaviors to emerge triumph.
The underlying exploitation of religion and religious themes underscore the psychological issues in the movie. While Cole ‘converted’ into Jewish, he was not psychological happy with the action, a process that involved even shedding of blood through circumcision. The authorities used the religion to control the thinking of the people, through skewed Sina’s madrassa people who may have thought of rebellion. Any form of civil disobedience gets violently crushed, and it makes the people live in a perennial state of fear without independence of thought or action. The Physician is enjoyable to watch, and I learnt new medieval period knowledge from it.

Last Completed Projects

Are you looking for a similar paper or any other quality academic essay? Then look no further. Our research paper writing service is what you require. Our team of experienced writers is on standby to deliver to you an original paper as per your specified instructions with zero plagiarism guaranteed. This is the perfect way you can prepare your own unique academic paper and score the grades you deserve.

Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.

[order_calculator]