GENERAL FEATURES OF THE PATIENT-PHYSICIAN RELATIONSHIP

The communication between physicians and patients is often deficient. Little time is devoted to it and the patient receives scanty informati on with a low emotional content. Some features of our medicine can exp lain this situation. The rationalist and mechanistic biological model, allows to study only those things that can be undertaken with the sci entific method. Psychological, social and spiritual aspects are surpas sed. It only looks at material aspects of people, limiting the communi cation. Patients express their symptoms in an emotional way, with mult iple beliefs and fears. The physician converts them to a precise, scie ntific, measurable and rational medical logical type. This language is not understood by patients, generating hesitancy in the communication . The paternalism is based in the power that physicians have over pati ents. We give knowledge and ask the patient to subordinate and accept our power. The patients looses his moral right to be informed, to ask, to have doubts or to disagree. Our personal communication is almost a lways formal, unemotional and with no explanations, further limiting c ommunication.