"The Use of Force" is a story first published in 1938 as part of a compilation of work by William Carlos Williams. It tells the story of a doctor who is summoned to make a house-call to a family whom he has never met before, and who finds the child he is called to attend to strangely captivating and beautiful. Whilst the parents are respectful of the doctor, the child is not, kicking and clawing at him like a savage as he tries to examine her. In the course of her tantrum the doctor falls in love with her wildness, aware that his feelings are utterly inexplicable and entirely inappropriate. The forcible throat examination seems less of a throat exam and more like a rape.
The story was an immediate talking point because it raised so many ethical questions. One of the main subjects that it dealt with was how difficult it was for doctors in the 1930s to diagnose and assess medical situations in sometimes hostile environment amidst many other pressures, including the nervousness of parents who were worried about their unwell children, responsible use of their medical knowledge and power, and also the darker sides of their nature that might make them want to act in an inappropriate manner.
This story was first published as a book in its own right in 1938, and was subsequently published in 1984 as part of a book of "doctor stories" and poems by Williams, describing various experiences of physicians. Williams is considered to be one of the foremost writers on medicine and diagnostics, and his work is chiefly based upon occult knowledge, empathetic diagnosis and basically "gut feeling", and not the scientific, objective type of medical diagnosis that Williams was extremely suspicious of. Williams had a long and respected career as a physician, specializing in pediatrics, and also a respected career as a writer.
Williams was affiliated with Passaic General Hospital in New Jersey where he served as the hospitals's Chief of Pediatrics. The hospital changed its name to St. Mary's General Hospital and paid tribute to Williams with a plaque that proclaims, "We walk the wards that Williams walked."
