Sue Fisher and Alexandra Dundas Todd (eds.), The social organization of doctor–patient communication. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1983. Pp. xvii + 269.

This article uses a 1974 study of doctor–patient communication from Christopher Candlin, Clive Bruton and Jonathan Leather as a starting point to trace how miscommunication, misunderstanding and communication failure have been treated in the applied linguistics of professional practice since then. The study helps us notice the tension between seeing miscommunication as a problem of skills, and seeing it as part of a situated process in a wider context of institutional practices. In reading the literature on misunderstanding through this 1974 study, I focus on how the act of miscommunication is identified, who sees it as a misunderstanding, what is at stake and how an event, labeled as a misunderstanding, is retold in a new context.

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Politeness Strategies and Doctor-Patient Communication. On the Social Choreography of Collaborative Thinking

Journal of Language and Social Psychology ◽

10.1177/0261927x8700600101 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 1-27 ◽

Cited By ~ 46

Author(s):

Karin Aronsson ◽

Ullabeth Sätterlund-Larsson

Keyword(s):

Patient Communication ◽

Doctor Patient Communication ◽

The Social ◽

Social Choreography ◽

Politeness Strategies

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Social Meanings of the Hungarian Politeness Marker Tetszik in Doctor-Patient Communication

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica ◽

10.2478/ausp-2020-0025 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 88-104

Author(s):

Ágnes Kuna ◽

Ágnes Domonkosi

Keyword(s):

Patient Communication ◽

Gps Data ◽

Doctor Patient Communication ◽

The Social ◽

Social Meanings ◽

Relative Status

AbstractThe paper explores how the politeness marker tetszik is used in Hungarian and how its functions are evaluated by the participants of doctor-patient communication. The possible functions of tetszik are investigated on the basis of questionnaires filled in by 50 patients and 50 GPs. Data about the social meanings of tetszik are presented with regard to the following: proportions of the use of tetszik in doctor-patient communication; metapragmatic evaluations and attitudes to the use of tetszik by doctors and patients; probable strategies underlying its use. Based on the data, we conclude that the use of the politeness marker tetszik is prototypically respectful while conveying familiarity and friendliness, with the age, gender, and relative status of the interlocutors also taken into consideration.

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Improving doctor–patient communication through an autobiographical narrative theory

Communication & Medicine ◽

10.1558/cam.v11i3.20369 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Chiara Fioretti ◽

Andrea Smorti

Keyword(s):

Autobiographical Memory ◽

Narrative Theory ◽

Patient Communication ◽

The Other ◽

Current Evidence ◽

Physician Communication ◽

Doctor Patient Communication ◽

Cognitive Studies ◽

The Social ◽

Based Medicine

This paper examines patient–physician communication, and in particular what each partner in this delicate relationship requests from the other, in the light of current research in cognitive studies relating to autobiographical memory and narrative. It explains that narratives are the result of a co-construction and sharing process between a storyteller and a listener – in this context, the patient and the physician, who work together on the story of the anamnesis. It further stresses the need for a robust and considered connection between patient-centred practices and theoretical constructs of narrative as it relates to the social development of autobiographical memory. Through an analysis of current evidence on doctor–patient communication and narratives of illness, a model of ‘narrative-based medicine’ (NBM) is proposed.

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