Glin Bennet asks and attempts to answer the question: 'Why are so many doctors unhappy despite their interesting work, high status and good income? Why are alcoholism, drug abuse and suicide on the increase in the medical profession? Why are the very people we entrust our health to so bad at looking after their own?'

The diagnosis is based on a detailed examination of the public and private lives of doctors, the way they misuse their power, their ignorance of the patient's real needs and the meaning of an illness for a sick person, and the story of the wounded healer.

Dr Bennet makes his own recommendations for change from a close study of early beliefs about healing and draws on ideas from other cultures and disciplines.

Reviews – 'A persuasive review of the current state of medicine' Sunday Times
- 'A deeply absorbing and humane book' Sunday Telegraph
- 'An important, wide ranging and accessible book. Its aim successfully fulfilled, is self-knowledge and thereby better knowledge of the patient'. Lancet