Did My Appendix Draw This Cartoon?

In Memorium of My Iatrophobia

I used to have a massive fear of doctors and hospitals. I would banish any thought acknowledging the phobia, terrified of setting off a recursive loop of worrying about worrying. But sometimes it was unavoidable—like when I sat in a doctor’s office waiting for the results of a brain MRI after sudden hearing loss.

To distract myself, I checked my phone. An email from my editor had the always-welcome “O.K.” as the subject line, meaning one of my roughs had sold. I believe it was this one:

“Another doctor cartoon?” I thought.

In those days, at least one in every five cartoons I sold was about doctors, hospitals, or death, even though only about one in ten of my submitted roughs covered those subjects.

I already knew I used humor to deflect from my fears. I could also see how subjects I had strong feelings about would have more salience with readers. But sitting in that waiting room, I realized something even weirder was going on: a creative tension between my conscious and unconscious minds.

My unconscious wanted to address and express all my repressed fears, while my conscious mind was mainly interested in creating funny cartoons. The doctor cartoons were a way for my unconscious to sneak notes past the prison guards.

I recalled another vertiginous hospital moment years earlier, when I was admitted for an emergency appendectomy. I remembered that this was my cartoon in The New Yorker that exact week:

When I had drawn that cartoon a few weeks prior, could my body have known something was going wrong with my appendix? Was it putting out a distress signal? Does that sound nuts?

Have you ever had a dream about looking for a place to relieve yourself, only to wake up and realize you urgently need to use the bathroom? Is it really so far-fetched to think artistic creation sometimes works the same way? Was my unconscious trying to let me in on the arrangement when it came up with this idea?

If you had asked me back then what I thought of doctors, I would have said I admired them greatly and that it’s about as noble a profession as one could have. Yet, in my cartoons, they’re usually portrayed as malevolent, insane idiots.

I think this reflects a repressed hostility over the unfairness of the doctor-patient power dynamic. After all, I’m not allowed to tell them that they’re about to die. Why should they have that power over me?

I no longer have a phobia of doctors and hospitals. I still draw cartoons about them—though these days, they hardly ever sell.

Today’s matchup is between two vintage, unpublished medical cartoons from the height of this fruitfully phobic era.

First up, it’s Dr. Bear:

And the challenger: Keepsies.

We will be back next week with the second May Semifinal. Thank you all so much for subscribing. Please consider becoming a paid member, if you can. Also, did you know I have a book coming out?