What Do the Doctors Say?
How Doctors Create a World through Their Words
by
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I have identified twelve figures of speech that are used to create the culture of the medical mythology. The list is not exhaustive but instead is used to illustrate how talk creates a culture. The features of medical culture are as follows: the doctor is the one who knows, the mother of the patient may be perceived as an obstacle, the medical community is a locked-in and self-contained system, the medical culture induces inhabitants to maintain the status quo, the culture is at times oblivious to the effect that their words have on others outside of the culture, the culture is impervious to criticism, many of the patient's symptoms may be explained away by a reference to the primary diagnosis, and medical practitioners often exaggerate their owm importance. The list of features, I know, is not complementary. I am, however, revealing how we all participate in maintaining this mythology of the medical community even though it does not serve us as patients. One reason why we recreate this mythology is the pull, on all of us, of maintaining the status quo. We sometimes work to keep thing the same even if it is harmful. For instance, sometimes parents recreate their parents' parenting practices because they are familiar rather than chosen because they are the best parenting practices. Change can be threatening. All of us suffer in the existing system--health care professionals and patients.
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About the Book
The medical world creates its own culture. This culture, however, would not continue if it were not for our participation. As consumers of health care, the way in which we talk, too, maintains the medical culture as it is. This culture frequently dismisses the wisdom of parents and talks them out of their own sense. We, as parents, co-create a culture that continually diminishes us. This collaboration has disastrous consequences for our children. How many times have you heard about a parent having a particular insight into his/her child only to be dissuaded from the truth by the doctor? What Do the Doctors Say? provides stories from the author’s own experience as a mother. As a scholar of communication, she has identified twelve language patterns that are used to create medical culture. The book is written particularly for parents of children with disabilities but may be a useful tool for all consumers of health care.
About the Author
Janet Farrell Leontiou, Ph.D. is the mother of seven-year-old twins (one is typically developing and one has cerebral palsy). She is an assistant professor of communication at Nassau Community College. She lives in Rye, New York, with her husband, Chris, and their twin sons, Andreas and Zachary.