PATCH ADAMS FİLMİNDE SAĞLIK VE İYİLEŞ(TİR)ME: PATCH ADAMS, YARALI ŞİFACI

Inspired by a true story, Patch Adams (1998) tells the life of a suicidal man (a man with manic depressive disorder, or to use a much more contemporary term, a man with bipolar man), who makes his mind up to study medicine after his experience of a short stay in a mental hospital. During his stay there,(Hunter) Patch Adams (acted by Robbie Williams) comes to understand that physical healing cannot be obtained without having spiritual healing initially and having a strong urge to help ill people and to speed their healing process up with regard to their mental and physical health, Patch Adams decides to establish the Gesundheit Institute as another option to contemporary hospitals. Dr. Adams expresses that in the hospitals only symptoms of the diseases are treated, but the main causes of the diseases and the emotional state of the patients are not taken into consideration and are mostly disregarded. Putting together his first hand experiences of being an in-patient in a mental hospital and then being a medical doctor, he tries to bring alternative treatments (based on caring and sharing) at the Gesundheit Institute in the application of medical practice and in due course, he makes a positive impact by touching the lives of many people not only in his close circles, but all around the world as the story of Patch Adams is made into a movie (from the book Gesundheit: Good Health Is a Laughing Matter) and his ideas and principles with regard to health and healing spread and reach at millions of people through media. Hence, in this study, journey of Adams’ healing process as well as his healing methods in the field of medicine will be analyzed with regard to the flow of the events shown in Patch Adams. Moreover, the power of movies to raise awareness about health issues in our global world will be examined.