I recently found out why doctors cultivate a certain amount of professional arrogance when dealing with patients: Most patients don't understand whats behind their specific disease - and usually do not care. So if doctors where open to argument, or would state doubts more openly the patient might loose trust, and not do what he is ordered to do. To instill an absolute belief in doctors powers might be very helpful for a big size of the population. A lot of my own frustration in doctors experiences can be attributed to me being a non-standard patient that reads to much.