Sociologies (Feb 2020)
Les louvoiements du patient au sein du cabinet médical
Abstract
In this article, I offer to shed some new light on the sociological analysis of the patient-doctor encounter. To that end, I orient my approach on the examination of health-related inquietude exposition. I draw on ethnographic data, observations of patient-doctor encounters and interviews with patients. From the office threshold through the exit, the patient seems weaving. Even though, patient’s conditions are little problematic from the diagnostic point of view, the person, and her/his subject position, seem constantly tangent, tacking between different states. The scale of the patient’s difficulty is somehow surprising. S/he has to navigate both for communicating the medical trouble which simultaneously exposes him/her to several risks (e.g. not being taken seriously, not being examined with attention, suffering might not be alleviated, solicitude request might not be met) and for elucidating what is going on with this troubling biological body. I show how an analysis can be carried out on the subject’s arrangements with one’s inquietude and its exposition to the doctor. While focusing on the patient dynamics of exposition/being exposed, I provide insight for a little discussed space of reflection and inquiry.
