A physician with autism in the TV series? Lessons of The Good Doctor

Abstract

The medical drama The Good Doctor / El buen doctor (TV) (2017) of David Shore (United States) is helpful to analyze various important issues to health sciences. On the one hand, as a medical drama, it allows to examine the fiction of doctors and patients, the bioethical dilemmas raised in each of the cases, and the implications of the professional actions in the lives of patients. On the other hand, the peculiar qualities of the protagonist (characterized with a diagnosis of autism and savant syndrome, which makes him both extremely intelligent and not very skilled in social relations) are the key of access for the analysis of representations about people with autism, both in the cinema and on television. In this article we will focus especially on the representation of autism and the fact that the guest is the first autistic doctor to appear in a medical drama. What are their characteristics? How is the guest of The Good Doctor characterized? Its usefulness for students of health sciences is multiplied and allows to return to bioethical questions as well as aspects linked to doctor-patient communication and the limits and possibilities of the medical practice.

Keywords

• serie médica
• autismo
• enseñanza
• ciencias de la salud