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"Let Me Tell You Why!”. When Argumentation in Doctor-Patient Interaction Makes a Difference

Rubinelli, Sara ; Schulz, Peter J.

In: Argumentation, 2006, vol. 20, no. 3, p. 353-375

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    Title
    • "Let Me Tell You Why!”. When Argumentation in Doctor-Patient Interaction Makes a Difference
    Author
    • Rubinelli, Sara. Health Care Communication Laboratory, School of Communication Sciences, University of Lugano, Via Buffi 13, 6900, Lugano, Switzerland
    • Schulz, Peter J.. Health Care Communication Laboratory, School of Communication Sciences, University of Lugano, Via Buffi 13, 6900, Lugano, Switzerland
    Document Type
    • Postprint
    OAI-PMH Identifier
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:311633
    Summary
    This paper throws some light on the nature of argumentation, its use and advantages, within the setting of doctor-patient interaction. It claims that argumentation can be used by doctors to offer patients reasons that work as ontological conditions for enhancing the decision making process, as well as to preserve the institutional nature of their relationship with patients. In support of these claims, selected arguments from real-life interactions are presented in the second part of the paper, and analysed by means of a model of argumentation borrowed from classical rhetoric, and refined according to the modern orientation of the pragma-dialectic approach