Conversation Analysis on Doctor-Patient Communication

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Most of current studies on doctor-patient relationships have shared the idea that communication between physicians and their patients is asymmetrical. I don't deny that asymmetries are achieved or accomplished through institutionalized settings, but in this research I explore on several aspects of the constitution of non-asymmetry in talk of doctor-patient encounter. Authors, like Fisher, Todd, Mishler and West, who argue that conversational initiatives are taken and monopolized by physicians, overlook the implications of details of the encounter. Firstly, some findings in my research suggest that patients can also try to influence the course of the medical interview and often tell the assessments of their physicians. Secondly, sometimes, medical consultations are almost like everyday-conversations. A certain data shows that one conversational device, namely "telling-a-bad-news" was used by a physician in order to inform his patient of his malignancy and as a result, the consultation was failed because they couldn't decide the policy of the surgical treatment from then on. We should note that the structure or identity of institutional talk is continuously relevant and recurrently produced through turn-by-turn interaction between two participants.