Abstract

Clinical Communication: the emergence of a clinical discipline

Author(s): Dr. Elaine Gill

Communication between doctors and patients has always been important in medicine. There are endless quotes taken through the ages of wise words from doctors themselves, philosophers (often cited as stand alone quotes at the head of chapters or papers), and in more recent years sociologists have added a modern discipline perspective. A quote generally gives the message that doctors’ should listen to patients, ask them about their story, treat the patient and not just the disease and so forth. Furthermore, the implied message was that this is what good doctors should do. The nineteen fifties and sixties saw the emergence of doctor-patient relationship models. Balint, talked about the ‘doctor as the therapeutic tool’ and Parsons (1951) and the societal system described the ‘sick role’ for patients. Both gave us seminal general practice and sociological models. Szasz and Hollender (1956) provided a sociological model of the doctor-patient relationship that is still referred to today. The seventies further expanded sociological and political discourse about medicine and its role and impact on society. (Freidson 1970, Foucault 1973, Sontag 1977, Zola 1970) The doctor-p