I was almost certain it was from an episode, but I might be getting it jumbled in my head. I'd very much love to know the exact quote, if it's possible.
Thanks!
Are you positive it was from the show itself? Kelly voiced an opinion similar in Inside Star Trek. (I'll be able to provide the quotation in full tomorrow, if you want to check.)
I've had that record since it came out, but only played it once or twice. I'd like to give it a listen again, but haven't had a turntable in ages. IIRC, on the record, DeForest Kelly was in character as McCoy as he was being "interviewed" by Roddenberry. I believe the quote in question DOES come from there.
Here's DeForrest Kelly, from Inside Star Trek:
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Roddenberry: Medicine today, what do you think of it?
Kelley: It's too expensive.
Roddenberry: Come on, that's a pretty safe generality.
Kelley: Is it? Look, when millions of inhabitants on a planet can't afford medical care, then it's obviously too damned expensive. Now, if you wanna ask what I think of medical care that
is available...
Roddenberry: I've noticed you do seem to be critical of medicine today.
Kelley: Well, like anything else, Gene, medicine reflects the society it's part of. Just as our 20th century has tried to find happiness outside ourselves in material things, I think our medicine today has too often tried to find its answers outside the human body -- in other words, in technology, or pharmacology, or sometimes in physically assaulting the body. Now, I'm not criticizing our physicians, understand -- that just happens to be the state of the art today. They save a lotta lives. They save a lotta lives, just as doctors once had to cut off all gangrenous limbs to save a lotta lives. [...] When we start
Star Trek again, we've just got to have some scenes of medicine the way it's going to be. You see, I see the physician as less a mechanic or a chemist, but more a teacher. In other words, teaching the patient to use the natural healing ability we all have in our bodies. And our natural healing body is incredible, absolutely incredible. Most top doctors today will admit that we're on the edge of such a medical revolution. They no longer ignore the mounting evidence that infection and disease have much to do with the state of our conscious or unconscious mind.
Gene: I can agree with that. I remember onstage, we used to say we were all too busy to catch a cold -- and none of us ever did.
Kelley: And you know, a surprising number of people have cured themselves of diseases from athlete's foot to cancer, and some of them were never aware they were healing themselves! Plus the fact that some of our best physicians are no longer laughing at things like...well, witch doctors, yoga, Zen, Christian Science, acupuncture, meditation and so on. Our bodies are incredibly sophisticated and capable machines, and it's time that we began respecting those bodies for what they are, and began learning what they can do.
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Before this, Kelley talks about how much of himself he invested in the character of McCoy and how the character and he invariably rubbed off on one another -- so McCoy may have made a similar statement.
