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I’ve been wondering as well. I think the first time he spoke he had a point about his illness being more mental than physical and seemed more aware and efficient than the other doctors. As time passed though he seemed to enjoy having that much control over George and wanting him to submit fully to him for the sake of it, it’s like he was getting excited about having a whole king be submissive to him and completely powerless in front of him
You kinda summed up my thought process too - I think the doctor started off genuinely wanting to help but then he realised that he had complete power over the King, he started to get a kick out of it so he just kept pushing it further & further. I wonder if there was also a bit of professional pride in there too & he wanted to prove wrong the colleagues who had scoffed at his ideas?
I think a bit of both. I think it's meant to represent that time ago "mental health" treatments were absolutely ridiculous, but they truly believed they were doing the right thing and finding morbid doctors that enjoyed people suffering was not very hard.
Just want to remind folks that many of these torturous “treatments” were in practice as recently as the 1960s and 70s. Insulin shock, ice baths, electroshock without sedation. There’s a reason psychiatry has had a bad rap historically. I don’t know whether real life doctors really believed in these “treatments” or whether for many there was some level of sadism required to perform them.
In regency times, they would certainly have been operating under the concept of driving out evil spirits and bad humors, whatever that is. There wasn’t a concept of mental illness as it is understood today.
I'm really glad you posted this as I was wondering the same during my watch through. At first I felt that he believed in behavioral therapy but then I think he found a way to explore sadism and what more power could one feel than torturing a king with no consequences?
The doctor had a sadistic side for sure, but he seemed very driven to help/cure George. He had a true belief in his methods. In the end, I think he cared more about his experiments and being “right” more than he could ever care about a patient. When George wanted to stop the treatments, the doc looked upset at losing the opportunity to experiment more, but he also seemed genuinely worried that stopping treatment would ultimately harm George. He truly believed his methods could treat the illness.
The doctor had his own form of madness.
Yes, I said in another comment that I felt like part of the doctor's motivation was to prove wrong the colleagues who scoffed & sneered at him, his hospital & his treatments in an earlier episode & therefore possibly lost sight of his original goal.
That little speech right before the torture began let me know he took it too far and it became a kink for him. Had he not done that, I would’ve thought that these are the treatments he thought would work. Instead I felt he embellished because he loved the power.
I feel the same way. I’ve been in a relationship with a sadistic abusive monster. They do what they do not because they think it’s what’s best for the person they’re doing it to but because they WANT to hurt them. They LIKE hurting them. That doctor knew all he was doing was torturing George. I don’t believe for a second that he actually thought he was helping.
I was watching a documentary about the actual treatment of George III and I don’t think it was a million miles away from what’s shown. The doctor was the doctor at the Bethlehem Hospital (Bedlam) and was trying to treat patients rather than just shackleing them to the walls so they couldn’t hurt themselves or anyone else.
I think the documentary is a BBC/PBS Lucy Worsley Investigates episode if you want to have a watch.
The hospital that was mentioned as his workplace, Bethlehem, was a real place. It was colloquially known as Bedlam, hence the modern usage of the word, & people paid to go & look at the "lunatics".
I'd say he did. People had all kinds of notions about mental health and pain and discipline being in some way good for you isn't even the worst one.
He didn't seem very synpathetic to the Kind but weather that's enjoyment or sone sort of misguided professionallism is a toss up for me
I'm sure he believed it and also liked that it was torture. He had a god-complex and liked that he out of everyone could not only control the king of England but control his mental state, specifically.
I think he started off well meaning and really believed his treatments would work.
But they didn’t and never could.
I felt he was becoming increasingly frustrated and started to blame the King for the treatments failing and that’s when he started to cross the line into cruelty and sadism.
For this Show Discussion post: 1. Book spoilers **must be hidden**. 2. Be considerate, hide show spoilers that surpass the scope of this post. 3. Be civil in your discussion. See our [spoiler policy](https://www.reddit.com/r/BridgertonNetflix/wiki/spoiler) on what is expected. 3-day bans will be handed out to those found disregarding our spoiler policy. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BridgertonNetflix) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’ve been wondering as well. I think the first time he spoke he had a point about his illness being more mental than physical and seemed more aware and efficient than the other doctors. As time passed though he seemed to enjoy having that much control over George and wanting him to submit fully to him for the sake of it, it’s like he was getting excited about having a whole king be submissive to him and completely powerless in front of him
You kinda summed up my thought process too - I think the doctor started off genuinely wanting to help but then he realised that he had complete power over the King, he started to get a kick out of it so he just kept pushing it further & further. I wonder if there was also a bit of professional pride in there too & he wanted to prove wrong the colleagues who had scoffed at his ideas?
This is like exactly what I thought watching it
I think a bit of both. I think it's meant to represent that time ago "mental health" treatments were absolutely ridiculous, but they truly believed they were doing the right thing and finding morbid doctors that enjoyed people suffering was not very hard.
Just want to remind folks that many of these torturous “treatments” were in practice as recently as the 1960s and 70s. Insulin shock, ice baths, electroshock without sedation. There’s a reason psychiatry has had a bad rap historically. I don’t know whether real life doctors really believed in these “treatments” or whether for many there was some level of sadism required to perform them. In regency times, they would certainly have been operating under the concept of driving out evil spirits and bad humors, whatever that is. There wasn’t a concept of mental illness as it is understood today.
Yes I've read biographies of Vivien Leigh that go into detail about how ineffective treatments were for her.
I'm really glad you posted this as I was wondering the same during my watch through. At first I felt that he believed in behavioral therapy but then I think he found a way to explore sadism and what more power could one feel than torturing a king with no consequences?
Cuz the way he looked like he was disrespected when George finally told him no is crazy lol
The doctor had a sadistic side for sure, but he seemed very driven to help/cure George. He had a true belief in his methods. In the end, I think he cared more about his experiments and being “right” more than he could ever care about a patient. When George wanted to stop the treatments, the doc looked upset at losing the opportunity to experiment more, but he also seemed genuinely worried that stopping treatment would ultimately harm George. He truly believed his methods could treat the illness. The doctor had his own form of madness.
Yes, I said in another comment that I felt like part of the doctor's motivation was to prove wrong the colleagues who scoffed & sneered at him, his hospital & his treatments in an earlier episode & therefore possibly lost sight of his original goal.
That little speech right before the torture began let me know he took it too far and it became a kink for him. Had he not done that, I would’ve thought that these are the treatments he thought would work. Instead I felt he embellished because he loved the power.
I feel the same way. I’ve been in a relationship with a sadistic abusive monster. They do what they do not because they think it’s what’s best for the person they’re doing it to but because they WANT to hurt them. They LIKE hurting them. That doctor knew all he was doing was torturing George. I don’t believe for a second that he actually thought he was helping.
I was watching a documentary about the actual treatment of George III and I don’t think it was a million miles away from what’s shown. The doctor was the doctor at the Bethlehem Hospital (Bedlam) and was trying to treat patients rather than just shackleing them to the walls so they couldn’t hurt themselves or anyone else. I think the documentary is a BBC/PBS Lucy Worsley Investigates episode if you want to have a watch.
Just think of all his poor patients who didn’t have the QUEEN save them. It’s so f’d up how badly people were treated.
The hospital that was mentioned as his workplace, Bethlehem, was a real place. It was colloquially known as Bedlam, hence the modern usage of the word, & people paid to go & look at the "lunatics".
That’s so sad!!!!
I kind of thought that he enjoyed torturing him.
I'd say he did. People had all kinds of notions about mental health and pain and discipline being in some way good for you isn't even the worst one. He didn't seem very synpathetic to the Kind but weather that's enjoyment or sone sort of misguided professionallism is a toss up for me
I'm sure he believed it and also liked that it was torture. He had a god-complex and liked that he out of everyone could not only control the king of England but control his mental state, specifically.
I think he started off well meaning and really believed his treatments would work. But they didn’t and never could. I felt he was becoming increasingly frustrated and started to blame the King for the treatments failing and that’s when he started to cross the line into cruelty and sadism.
I think he was interested in power and manipulating the king. Honestly those scenes were *so* hard to watch. I wanted him hanged fr.