Job and his “doctors”: bedside wisdom in the book of Job

Summary points

Viewed by a modern clinician, the book of Job unfolds as possibly the earliest description of patients and their healers struggling to cope with loss and illness

Job's lament contains all the recognised stages and elements of adaptation to calamity

Job's friends take on the role of healers, but, failing to recognise his needs, they blame their “patient” for his misfortunes and end up in a cycle of escalating empathic failure that renders them helpless

The failure experienced by Job's “healers” is not uncommon in modern doctors, who fail to recognise their own fear of helplessness and their own defensiveness

The assumed presence of a deity can provide coherence out of confusion for modern patients, believers and non-believers alike, and help them through the adaptation process, just as it did for Job

The book of Job, like an ancient mirror, reflects both the frail and heroic features of humans, which have changed little through the ages