A PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF DOCTOR-PATIENT INTERACTION - A CASE-STUDY

The fact that the biomedical model has been very successful in practic e does not preclude that some health issues can be understood by way o f other health care perspectives. Acquiring skills in meeting patients requires theories that structure other fields of knowledge than the b iomedical sciences, An old man, who experiences himself as deeply misu nderstood by the medical profession, is interviewed, his personal life -story is gone into and his case records and other available data are analysed. A phenomenological method is used, i.e. disciplined and rigo rous reflection upon available data, remaining close to the particular pieces of the patient's narrative as they stand forth in their contex tual relationships. The study shows that the doctors involved did not relate to the patient but to a biomedical image of him. His efforts to make himself understood were converted into instrumentally manageable disorders. Finally, dialogue medicine is briefly introduced as a mode l for counselling patients, especially when they need assistance to ab andon the notion that they have been afflicted with a disease, a perce ption that might serve the purpose of keeping a threatening self-image out of consciousness. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.