Word: ployes
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...this conflict, of course, the doctor always has the advantage of his specialized knowledge. "An intensely annoying ploy [gambit] often used by doctors," writes Potter, "is to treat Patient not only as if he knew nothing about medicine, but as if he were as ignorant of all anatomical knowledge as a child of four. Doctor will start, for instance, speaking very slowly, with 'you see, the heart is a sort of pump,' and will then imitate the action of a pump, unrecognizably, with his hands. Or he will refer to the blood corpuscles as 'the white fellows...
This is "an extremely difficult ploy to counter," but the tables can be turned by a patient who replies with some hauteur, "They appear rather steatorrhoeic...
Another useful ploy for the patient "consists of playing on Doctor's fear of seeming [to claim] medical qualifications which he does not in fact possess." Suppose, for example, the doctor suggests that some ailment may be psychological in origin. "Oh, Doctor," the patient may reply, "I had no idea that was one of your subjects. I've always wanted a good psychotherapist." Follow up the advantage promptly, urges Potter: "Refuse to take in the doctor's worried assurance that he is not a trained psychiatrist. Make it appear that you are going to tell your friends...
...secondary ploy is the faulty-mechanism technique. Here the Skiman crawls to the side of the trail after a spill, feverishly snapping one binding and muttering Swedish cusswords. The bad binding can excuse several spills if worked right...
Fifth and most refined we have the room-mate expert or phony reference ploy. Almost everybody sooner or later comes to a point in an examination where he ought to cite a reference. Of course, if he comes upon the rare occasion where he knows the name of a book, then all is fine. He just states the reference thusly "As Professor Banana says on page 207 of his work, 'The Dynamics of Idiocy.'" It really doesn't make any difference whether the page number is right--the grader certainly won't look it up. As a matter of fact...