With the right kind of care, we learn to love them and ourselves. With the right kind of parenting, we learn dependence and independence. Of course, there is no perfect parenting. So we all have trouble with dependence and independence. Sometimes we are dependent when we should be independent, and vice versa.
Health care is reminiscent of childhood.
The doctor is our parent, and we are helpless babies. We feel secure in his office, and long for his concern, reassurance, and medicine. We are awed by his jargon, worship his intellect, and feel totally dependent. Of course, health care is not childhood. The doctor is not our parent, and we are not helpless babies - no matter how much we wish this were true.