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Gregory House: Doctor or Scientist?

The character is a scientist, albeit one disguised as a doctor.

BY KYLE OSBORNE

In the medical drama series House, MD (2004–12), Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) fits the profile of a scientist. He is curious, brilliant, and willing to do anything to find truth. But by profession, he is a medical doctor.

Medical doctors technically are not scientists. Some may utilize the scientific method and all of them use scientific knowledge, but they are not scientists. Scientists are skeptics. Scientists form theories and hypotheses. Scientists often push the boundaries of their fields to dangerous points.

A scientist is a person who is studying or has expert knowledge of one or more of the natural or physical sciences (OED).

Modern medical doctors are healers. They diagnose, correct, advise, and/or prescribe "for any human disease, ailment, injury, infirmity, deformity, pain, or other condition, physical or mental, real or imaginary." Doctors empathize with and (generally) show some compassion for their patients. Finally, they administer treatment that may be affected by cultural norms and beliefs.

The character Dr. Gregory House lacks bedside manners, tact, and compassion. In fact, he cares little for the well-being of his patients. He makes every move based on raw facts and logical analysis, and he seldom lets his emotions sway his judgment.

Dr. House repeatedly discredits the idea of a God and dismisses the possibility that some omnipotent being exists. And he repeatedly pushes medical theories and practices utilizing classic medical treatment in conjunction with the scientific method.

Virtually everything about the characterization of Dr. Gregory House points to his being a scientist, albeit one disguised as a doctor. (NOTE: while seemingly more apt, the label physician-scientist doesn't quite fit here either.)

Like other medical procedural dramas, House, MD follows a familiar formula. First, a sick patient arrives with symptoms other doctors can't treat. This causes the hospital's Dean of Medicine (Lisa Edelstein) to push the case onto Dr. House, who is disinterested until he sees an odd combination of ailments.

At this point, House begins to implement the scientific method. Along with his staff of three (usually young, good-looking) diagnosticians, he

makes observations (lists symptoms on a white board),
thinks of interesting questions (possible conditions of the patient),
formulates a hypothesis (neurosyphilis! lupus!),
develops testable predictions (treatment),
gathers data (test treatment),
refines/alters/expands/rejects said hypothesis (this is when House nearly kills the patient until his epiphany), and
develops general theories ("Everybody lies").

Scientific method and process. Wikimedia.

Dr. Gregory House's belief that everybody lies, even if it may kill them, shows his need for empirical evidence. House will not take anyone's word for anything. He always seeks tangible, testable evidence.

Additionally, during the scenes in which patients almost die, House treats the medical world like a petri dish. He is prepared to do whatever is necessary to find the answer, even if that means nearly killing himself. For instance, he has overdosed on Alzheimer's medication to the point of having his heart stop. He has also faked brain cancer to be included in an experimental trial where they'd "put a really cool drug in the pleasure centre of [his] brain."

With his lack of morality, empathy, and his disdain for authority, Dr. Gregory House is a character who seems completely out of place in medicine. That said, his presence on television for eight years suggests what he represents is somehow necessary to our world. (Fun fact: House was apparently the most-watched TV program in the world in 2008.)

One scholar observes that Dr. Gregory House is a diagnostician for our modern era, "a time when emerging infectious diseases are again ascendant" and when it's become increasingly more evident that "our knowledge is often inadequate to easily identifying the nature of such diseases or reversing their effects."

Yes, House, MD — via its representation of a scientist camouflaged as a doctor — presents our world of medicine, somewhat reassuringly and somewhat frighteningly, "as a balance between ignorance and knowledge."

This is dedicated to all of my sleepless nights binge watching House on Netflix when I should have been studying for finals.