Talking With Patients ― The Theory of Doctor-patient Communication

Spoken language is the most important diagnostic and therapeutic tool in medicine,and, according to Dr. Cassell, "we must be as precise with it as a surgeon with a scalpel." In thesetwo volumes, he analyzes doctor-patient communication and shows how doctors can use language for themaximum benefit of their patients. Throughout, Dr. Cassell stresses that patients are complex,changing, psychological, social and physical beings whose illnesses are well represented by theirown communication. He proposes that both listening and speaking are arts that can be learned bestwhen they are based on the way that spoken language functions in medicine.Accordingly, Volume Ifocuses on the workings of spoken language in the clinical setting. It analyzes such importantaspects of speech as paralanguage (non-word phenomenon like pause, pitch, and speech rate), howpatients describe themselves and their illnesses, the logic of conversation, and the levels ofmeanings of words.Volume II is a practical, detailed, how to guide that demonstrates the process ofhistory taking and how the doctor can learn the most from the information that the patient has tooffer. His arguments are amply illustrated in both volumes by transcripts of real interactionsbetween patients and their doctors.Eric J. Cassell, M.D., an internist and clinical director of theProgram for the Study of Ethics and Values in Medicine at Cornell Medical School, is widelyrecognized in the medical field for his contributions to communications in medicine and for hiswritings on ethics. Talking With Patients is the result of more than ten years of research. Hisfirst book, The Healer's Art, has achieved the status of an underground classic.