Lingue e Linguaggi (Jan 2016)
La questione della traducibilità del linguaggio e del senso nella relazione con il paziente/utente straniero
Abstract
Abstract – The present chapter focuses on the clinical relationship with foreign entities in which the foreignness is both a state language and a legal status, and thus a contingent and not existential condition. The issue concerns the translatability of language and meaning of the Other: this raises the issue of understanding and the possibility of communication and exchange. Starting from the discussion of the concepts of culture and context in the post-modern paradigm, a general model of clinical and social intervention is proposed involving a form of negotiation setting, based on extraneousness and contingency. Context and culture do not respond to universal categories, to limited space-time frames but they are the way in which the subject intends the world and his experience. This semiotic-clinical disposal represents a criterion of knowledge of the individual configurations. So it is possible to intercept the personal resources to orient a contingency-based intervention that promotes a process of co-construction of meaning, a product of the relationship between the actors. The object of the relation is the relational process in a clinical and social setting; thus, the model can direct the organization and provision of services for foreign nationals. The role of the interpreter is also considered in its general function and in particular contexts of service. The negotiating approach overcomes some critical issues integrating the semiotic socio-constructivist model with other social sciences.
