A recent radio programme explored the role which revulsion plays in shaping the way we make our moral choices.
In this context it is interesting to consider medical training – for doctors (& those in professions allied to medicine) must learn to overcome their natural revulsion, to do some of the things necessary - to save lives (in the extreme) or in some of the more mundane tasks of diagnosis.
Even so, it is surprising how many shy away from say, bowel functions, finding it hard even to discuss these in dispassionate language. What they always used to tell you – don’t be afraid to go to the doctor about something embarrassing, it won’t embarrass him – is simply not true (though he might be quite good at disguising it).
But is it a Good Thing to learn to overcome revulsion – or does it blunt ones ability to make moral choices?
We also demand that people should be trained to suppress natural reactions of fight or flight in other contexts – for example police are expected to be trained to stoically withstand or ignore the kind of provocations they might meet from self righteous protestors or drunken louts. In this case experience suggests that this reaction may be in the police’s own best interest, since it may reduce the chance that they get seriously injured themselves
